A Tale of Two Tournaments!!!!
Depending on What you were looking for both 17th District Tournaments had something to look for!
When senior Jada Stinson walked off the floor of Ron Bevars Gymnasium, she had a familiar feeling. When Devonta Guillory walked off the floor at Central Hardin High school’s gym, he had a slightly different feeling. Both walked off the floor winners in their District Finals, but both came about it a different way.
Stinson’s Lady Panthers had just finished off John Hardin in the girls basketball District Championship in a game that they held control and really never looked back on, while Guillory’s Bulldogs trailed the entire way up until the final seconds against a shorthanded North Hardin team which was a two time District Champion before finally finding the winning touch. It was sort of a parallel of different styles in the boys and girls games.
The final three games of the girls 17th District Tournament held at North Hardin saw a point difference of 96-points, while the boys Tournament held at Central Hardin saw a total of nine-points (three points separated all three games). Elizabethtown, which had won the last twelve 17th District Championships saw little resistance in the semi-finals against North Hardin and although John Hardin put up a tougher fight the third time around (John Hardin cut the deficit to 40-39 with 5:16 left), got big plays from their star Stinson, who finished with 18-points / 3-assists came up with the plays to keep the Lady Panthers in the lead. Star Power wins games late and that was the case in the Boys District Tournament as the names Pearson, Jackson, Durbin and Rothrock all played key roles in the last three games.
Junior Tyler Durbin helped shoot the Elizabethtown Panthers right back into a game which they appeared to have lost control of just before North Hardin’s Tony Jackson came up with a couple of plays that proved to be just enough to allow the Trojans to win. Meanwhile, John Hardin was trying to prevent being eliminated from the District Semi-finals for the third straight season. After Bruin senior Mason Rothrock came up with a big three-point play to put Central Hardin up with about two and a half remaining until junior Mickey Pearson hit a couple of free throws with seconds left to finalize the win. Two days later, it was Pearson again, who fueled a huge comeback against North Hardin in the final as the Bulldogs finally caught and beat the Trojans by three. So what does this mean?
As eight teams head into their Region Tournaments several things are predictable. One is that the team that does the little things like ball security late and hitting free throws will pay a huge dividend while coaching will seem more important in the first round as last season, several games were decided by two of less points. In any case, it should be a lot of fun next week.
