The Class 1, District 14 Basketball Tournament finals are set and they look exactly like the HDC Conference Tournament finals.
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The North Mercer boys and girls will face the Newtown-Harris boys and girls on Friday night for the district championships.
The Mercer boys weathered an early third quarter run by Ridgeway on Wednesday, winning, 48-35. The Mercer girls ran over Pattonsburg, 56-25. The Newtown-Harris teams both survived tough tests, with the boys beating Grundy R-5, 58-50 and the girls outlasting Gilman City, 44-41.
Mercer
Wednesday night’s, semifinals in Mercer began with a rematch of one of the HDC Tournament semifinal games. The second-seeded Cardinals got off to a good start, 18-7 in the first quarter, and led at halftime, 30-13.
The Ridgeway Owls came out and tried to make it a contest in the third quarter. The Owls scored the first six points and with two minutes remaining trailed, 33-23.
In the fourth quarter, the Owls continued to pressure the Cardinals but never got closer than 10 points. The Cardinals move on to meet Newtown-Harris in the finals on Friday at 6 p.m.
Ben Stark led the way for Mercer with 18 points and Austin Hague chipped in 14 points.
David Claycomb paced the Owls with 10 points.
The Lady Cardinals got a big boost from their standout guard Toni Brundage. Mercer led 19-2 after the first quarter, thanks in large part to five three-pointers by Brundage.
Brundage would hit 10 threes in the contest to finish with 30 points. She outscored all of Pattonsburg’s team by five points. The Lady Cardinals led at halftime, 33-12. The Lady Cardinals outscored the Lady Panthers in the second half, 23-13.
Jessica Coon also scored 10 points for Mercer.
Becca Bowland led Pattonsburg with 10 points.
The Lady Cardinals are set to face Newtown-Harris in the district finals on Friday at 7:30 p.m.
Newtown-Harris
Both Tiger teams survived stiff tests on Wednesday night. The Newtown-Harris boys were trying to beat Grundy R-5 for the third time this season. Both teams struggled to score during the opening minute of play but, with 2:30 to play in the first quarter, Newtown-Harris led, 9-0.
The Panthers rallied and finished the quarter on a 9-2 run. With six minutes remaining in the first half. the Panthers grabbed their first lead of the game, 18-16. Over the next three minutes Grundy outscored N-H 8-4 to run their lead to 26-20.
Back-to-back turnovers allowed the Tigers to battle back and tie the game at 26-26. With a minute remaining in the half, the Panthers again stretched their lead to five points, but a long three-pointer by Newtown-Harris with 10 seconds to play cut the lead to 33-31.
The turning point came midway through the third quarter with the game tied. The Panthers forced a turnover but missed a layup. Newtown-Harris responded with five quick points and never again lost the lead. Grundy R-5 tied the game twice in the fourth quarter, but never could wrestle the lead away from the Tigers.
K.J. Cool led Newtown-Harris with 20 points and Brandon Coin added 15 points. Kyle Larson led Grundy R-5 with 27 points.
Newtown-Harris plays Mercer in the finals on Friday at 6 p.m.
The Gilman City girls jumped out to a 13-9 lead in the first quarter, but at halftime Newtown-Harris led 23-19. The Lady Hawks outscored Newtown-Harris in the third quarter, 11-4, and went into the fourth period with a 30-27 lead.
The Lady Tigers outscored Gilman City in the final period by seven points to advance to the district finals.
Krista Abernathy led N-H with 16 points. Kyla Payne lead Gilman City with 16 points and Abbie Herrold scored 10 points.
The Lady Tigers play Mercer in the finals at 7:30 p.m. on Friday in Mercer.