Annual BORDER WAR tourney
Tuesday, November 8, 2016 11:29 am By DAVID HUNTER Last week, five out of the six Cannon County Grammar Schools took part in the annual Border War tournament at Woodbury Grammar and CCHS. "It has been an honor to continue with the Border War Tournaments," longtime tournament co-director Melanie Sissom said. "It has been a challenge to go forward, and try to do the things that Camia (Hayes) had been used to doing, and pick up the pieces and move on to what she would want us to do. It has been very hard, but also it has been very enjoyable as much, because I feel like she would be proud of what has come out of the Border War tournament."
"We came in Monday, and we were a little strung-out coming off Fall Break," Lady Warriors head coach Suzette Sissom said. "I think that really hurt us. We executed well in the first half of the game Monday night. We were still in the game at halftime. In the second half, we did not execute as well, and we did not box out and rebound well. They killed us on the boards, and that hurt us." The good news was, because of the unique bracket with only 10 teams on the girls' side since Swiss dropped out and Auburn got a forfeit win into the quarterfinals. The Lady Warriors got a second chance in the quarterfinals, the following day against Grundy North, and they took advantage with a 37-29 win to advance to the semifinals. The way the tournament was to win the Border War championship, the team would have to win two games on the same day. However, in the semifinals, the Lady Warriors ran into a well-oiled machine in Coffee County, and their superstar Bella Vinson. It was a back and forth game during the first 12 minutes, since quarters are only six minutes. The Lady Warriors were only down by two, 14-12 at the break. In the meantime, Coffee County broke open the game in the third quarter as it stretched its advantage to 25-18, and they pulled away for the 39-22 win and a berth in the finals, which they won later that night. "I told the girls we were in a good situation since we were the only team that got a second chance, and today was a second chance to do things better," Suzette Sissom said. "I was very proud of their effort, especially in the first half. They were committed to what we were doing, and we slowed up their offense. We stuck to the game plan, we were down two points at halftime. The second half, we fell back of our pattern of not boxing out, and their big girl killed us underneath." On the boys' side, the Westside Eagles rolled to the semifinals with wins by a combined score of 104 to 66 in the opening round and quarterfinals on Oct. 24 and 25. However, in the semis, they ran into a determined Coffee County team, while missing a key player, Liam Allen from the important contest. "The first two games, we played really well," Westside head coach Roger Haley said. "Coming into tonight, we had been hampered with the flu. We had several out all week, and we had only half our players practicing. We knew going into this game, they were a higher-level team. We still did not have all our starters here, and we were not able to get the things accomplished we wanted to. They were just too athletic." Here are the local results from the 2016 Border War Tournament Grundy North 22, Boyd 39 Oct. 25 Quarterfinals Girls M'boro Central Magnet 43 DeKalb Middle 44 Woodland 37 Oct. 29 Semifinals/Finals Girls Semifinals-Coffee 39 Woodland 22 Championship Game All-Tournament Team- (Woodland)- Bradi Mason. Oct. 24 Opening Round Boys M'boro Central Magnet 55 Swiss 61 Westside 54 Woodbury Grammar 36 Oct. 25 Quarterfinals Boys M'boro Central Magnet 54, Eastside 10 Westside 50 Coffee 55 Oct. 29 Semifinals/Finals Boys Coffee 44 Championship Game All-Tournament Team- (Westside)- Gus Davenport.
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