Elementary basketball season starts



DAVID HUNTER
The Cannon Courier
The 2015 Cannon County elementary school basketball season tipped off to a roaring start last week with the annual Woodbury Grammar Border War tournament. Eight teams from around the area, including three local schools, took part in the single elimination tournament hoping to launch the new season on a positive note.

Woodland, Auburn, and Westside were the three local representatives in the tournament with both the boys and girls team playing. The Woodland Lady Warriors made it all the way to the title game on Oct. 30, but they were dominated by a very good Coffee County team finally falling 57-38.
CC jumped out to an early 6-0 lead, and later in the first quarter went on a 9-0 run to take a 22-8 advantage after the first break. The Lady Warriors tried to fight back, but it was too little, too late as CC led 33-13 at the half.

Kristin Fann led the Lady Warriors with 13 points, while Anna Grace Sissom added 11 as they earned a runner-up finish in the tournament.
However, Woodland took care of business in their first two games of the tournament with a 58-27 win over Swiss in the quarterfinals on Oct. 27. Fann finished with 15 points, while Sissom added 14 and Jessie Kauffman had 10.

Two nights later, the Lady Warriors advanced to the title game with a 49-11 win over county rival Auburn. Fann scored 14 points, with Sissom adding 10 The Lady Knights were led by Katelyn Duggin with seven points in a losing effort.

In the girls third place game, the Lady Knights held off a hard charging North squad in the most competitive contest of the event, 41-40 on Oct. 30. Auburn took the lead for good with a beautiful three-point play by Madison Gaither with 28.3 seconds left in the game.

"It was amazing," Duggin said after the win. "We went out and we were ahead. We let them come back and then we pulled it out."
North converted a turnover into a basket with five seconds left to cut the lead to 41-40, but Auburn got a big defensive stop to end the game and pick up third place. Gaither scored 17 points, while Duggin added 12 in the victory.

"I am very pleased," Lady Knights head coach Tim Reed said. "They worked hard, and we had a good nice lead. We let them come back, but we fought and pulled out the win. I told the girls that's matters is the win."

The Lady Knights won their quarterfinal game, 35-19 over Murfreesboro Central Magnet on Oct. 26 with Gaither leading the way with 17 points, while Katie Hancock added 12.

The Auburn boys took fourth place after falling 41-30 to MCM on Oct. 30 in the third place game on Oct. 30 with Luke Jakes scoring 10 points, while Brenden Reed also had 10.