The top seeds were not denied titles Saturday at the Milan Tournament as the Mercer girls and Newtown-Harris boys held serve and picked up victories in the championship games.
While the Mercer girls and Newtown boys were winning championships, the Mercer boys and Newtown girls were picking up some hardware as well. Both the Cardinals and Lady Tigers won consolation trophies.
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Mercer
The Mercer girls were never in danger in the title game as they cruised to their second-straight Milan Tournament championship with an 81-51 win over Class 2 Schuyler County. Mercer won all three of their tournament games in Milan by at least 20 points, dominating the field.
Sierra Michaelis scored 39 points in the championship game and Courtney Owens added 24 as the Lady Cardinals picked up the easy win.
The Mercer girls moved to 12-0 on the season with the win.
The Mercer boys, meanwhile, picked up a 61-58 win over Green City to capture the consolation title. Mercer got 25 points from Colton Hartley to lead all scorers and Ty Noe chipped in with 20 points.
“I was impressed with the way we finished and closed the game,” Cardinals Head Coach Tina Holt said. “We were patient on offense and executed on defense very well.”
The Mercer boys improved to 5-7 on the season with the win.
Both Mercer teams return to the floor on Tuesday as they host Pattonsburg in an HDC Conference doubleheader at home at 6 p.m.
Newtown-Harris
The Newtown boys picked up their fourth Milan Tournament title in five years and did so in dramatic fashion. Novinger held a 42-41 lead in the boys title game with 20 seconds remaining, but the Tigers’ Kameron Cool hit a three with four seconds to go to give the Tigers the win and the title.
Newtown trailed 23-18 at the break, but rallied in the third quarter to take a 29-28 lead. The Tigers hit 18-of-19 shots from the free-throw line, setting a school record for free-throw percentage in a single game (94.7).
Cool led the Tigers with 19 points and Japheth Busick added 18 points. Busick was nine-for-nine from the line in the game and went 21-of-21 from the charity stripe in the tournament.
The win moved the Tigers to 12-3 on the season.
The Lady Tigers trailed Green City 15-6 after the opening quarter of the girls consolation game and found themselves down 21-7 at halftime. Newtown never gave up, however, and outscored Green City 18-2 in the final frame to roar back and win the consolation title, 36-33.
Mercedes Foster scored 18 points to lead the Lady Tigers and Tara Collings added 12 points.
The win moved the Newtown girls to 9-6 on the season.
Newtown will be back in action Tuesday, facing HDC Conference foe Gilman City on the road. Action tips off with the girls game at 6 p.m.