The final day of the 25th annual Battle at the Border Tourney brought with it loads of entertaining basketball games as always. Here is a brief rundown and selections to the all tourney squads from the participating schools that we cover.
Silver Bracket
Girls’
Championship
Boiling Springs 46
Woodruff 33
All tourney selections:
McKenzie Kinard (BSHS)
Kara West (Broome)
Third Place Game:
Spartanburg Christian Academy 46
High Point Academy 42
Boys’
Championship
Broome 71
Greenville Hurricanes 68
All Tourney Selections:
Tre’Sean Suber (Broome)
Gold bracket
Girls’
Tournament Championship Game
Blue Ridge 40
Broome 34
All tourney selections:
Kourtney Wofford (Broome)
Dakota Mitchell (Broome)
Third place game
Chapman 43
Landrum 40
All Tourney Selections
Kylie Fortner (Landrum)
Krislyn Wilder (Chapman)
Gold Bracket
Boys’ Championship Game
Woodruff 56
Chesnee 40
The Eagles came into this tournament missing a key difference maker in junior shooting guard Braylon Blanton. Although his absence has been felt to an extent in this tourney, it had not come back to bite Chesnee until tonight.
However, if you are a firm believer in giving credit where it is due, it is unclear if he would have made this game any more competitive.
The Wolverines controlled it from the tip and never did look back, opening on an 11-0 run. Chesnee did not break into the scoring column until 3 minutes in and still struggled to score. The credit has to go to senior Forward Hunter West, who just simply could not miss, playing the best offensive game of his career according to Woodruff Head Coach Bryan McConnell.
“I just had to go shake his hand because that was his best offensive performance”, McConnell stated with a smile. “He is a good midrange shooter and he is a senior that has always played more inside as an athlete. We have been slowly moving him outside towards three point range. He has been working on it and he managed to knock a couple of them {threes} down tonight. His skill is getting better and we are starting to see that now. And that is huge for us.”
In the end, West earned an all-tourney team nod, with a team-high 20 points. Grayson Patterson was also solid for the Wolverines, tallying 13 points in the win.
One other thing is for certain about Woodruff.. They would not have won this tournament without the efforts of Dre Jenkins, who earned the MVP despite only scoring 8 points in this contest.
“Dre was fantastic. He was originally a Woodruff kid, moved, but came back to us for this season. I was so excited to have him back becuse of his athleticism. We are able to utilize him multiple ways in the offense and try to find openings for him because he finishes at the rim so well. He is patient with his shots, but what I harped on for him tonight was his defense. It has to get better because he has been offensive-minded. Fortunately, we felt tonight was his best defensive night as well”, McConnell said.
Woodruff also won this tournament in spite of being down 4 players coming in due to family holiday travel.
“This team has the best depth of any I have ever coached”, Coach McConnell stated with a confidence that says Woodruff might be the team to watch out for in region 3-3A, later adding that their depth advantage definitely showed tonight.
Chesnee’s lone bright spot was all-tourney selection Elijah Brown, who scored half the Eagles’ points, leading the way with 20.
Third Place Game
Chapman 65
Landrum 62
It goes without saying that these 2 teams have shown themselves to be very good and competitive through the early part of this season. Add in that these in-district sister schools rarely get to play one another and you have the recipe for an entertaining natural rivalry game atmosphere.
Both offenses were slow to get going, with neither squad cracking the goose eggs on the scoreboard until just over 2 minutes in when Chapman took the lead 2-0. It did not take long for Landrum to respond as Cooper Tidwell hit back to back three pointers to put the Cardinals in front. Landrum stayed in front for the majority of the opening 16 minutes until Chapman’s Josiah Moore hit back to back layups – one off a turnover and the other off an offensive rebound, to take the lead 32-31 heading to the half.
In the 3rd quarter, the Panthers built up a 46-40 lead before Landrum went on an 8-0 run capped by a Noah Dodd triple from the left side at the buzzer, giving the Cards a 48-46 lead to start the final frame. But in the end, Landrum had a bit of deja vu from their loss to Woodruff in the semifinals. In that game, they could not get any of their shots to fall when it got into the crucial home stretch and also struggled with turnovers and rebounding. Chapman was not much better, maintaining just a 4 point lead late. Landrum was able to cut that deficit in half, but in the end, missed on two different opportunities to either take the lead or to force overtime, and the Panthers held on.
All tourney selections:
Benett Edwards (Landrum)
Grayden Humphries (Chapman)
