Red Devils rule Fayette middle school tournament

Feb. 23—HICO — Oak Hill walked away with both championship trophies Saturday at the 2023 Fayette County Middle School Basketball Tournament.

In the girls title game, Oak Hill defeated Midland Trail 37-21 to conclude a 16-2 season. In the boys final, the Red Devils logged a 52-34 victory over the Valley Greyhounds in John Flournoy Gymnasium at Midland Trail High School.

Jenna Maynor scored 16 points and Bella Holly added nine to lead the Red Devils in the girls contest.

For the Patriots (13-5), Rachel Pritt and Whitney Bibb scored five points each to lead the way.

"We get up for these county games," said Oak Hill head coach Bubby Wilburn. "The kids play hard. We got after 'em. I think the pressure finally (took hold), after a while they kind of buckled."

Wilburn, in his third year, wasn't entirely pleased, as he said his inside players "missed a lot of easy buckets."

"All in all, the pressure, that's what we do all year," he continued. "We put pressure on you."

On top of that, Wilburn felt his team — the defending champions — had something to prove.

"Really, everybody had kind of written us off," he said. "We lost a lot, eight eighth-graders (from last year's champion team).

"This team, they played well. They play harder than any team I've coached. They executed as good as any team I've ever coached here in middle school.

"The kids play hard. They get after it, and they're up to the challenge."

Midland Trail head coach Pete Campbell admitted that going 2-of-16 from the free-throw line in the first half helped put the Patriots in an 18-8 hole at intermission.

"We tried to fight out of it," said Campbell. "We had a couple of comebacks, but we just couldn't finish off making our free throws.

"That was what got us in the end, just making shots. We missed some layups in there, as well."

The Patriots wound up 2-of-23 from the charity stripe for the game. Oak Hill was 4-of-12.

It marked the first matchup between the two teams during the campaign.

"Oak Hill's a great team; they're very well coached," Campbell said. "We watched their semifinal. ... I expected a tough, fast-paced game, and that's what both of our squads did."

The 13-5 record is the best a MTMS girls basketball unit has posted since the school was formed in 2017, according to Campbell.

Ava Campbell, a two-year starter at point guard, and Rachel Pritt and Whitney Bibb, both whom played a lot their seventh-grade years, were main cogs this year, he said. "We re-wrote a lot of records this year. We did very well this year. They exceeded expectations for me."

The Red Devils boys earned their team title by jumping out to a 28-15 halftime lead en route to the triumph over Valley.

Carson Treadway netted 17 points and teammate Antoine Hicks had 14 to guide the attack for Oak Hill, which finished 13-5.

Caden Morris tossed in a game-high 18 points for Valley (17-5). Tavion Woods added eight.

"It means a lot to me, because in Oak Hill's history, you can't come in second, and we tried to bring it back and make everybody proud of the county," said first-year Oak Hill head coach Josh Thomas. "They were a team, the whole team played as a team the whole year" with "no selfishness at all."

"They (Valley) had some kids in foul trouble," Thomas added. "We just started the pressure and got on 'em, and we got our big guys getting the ball down low rebounding and we got out in transition and made easy baskets.

"That was a heck of a team. We're going to come back and win next year. The eighth-graders will go on to do good things at Oak Hill High School. These seventh-graders will come back next year."

Valley head coach Gordy Mitchell said, "They didn't do anything we didn't expect. We started reaching and fouling and getting in foul trouble.

"We just didn't compete. When you get in a hole like that, they've got athletes in numbers (to make it harder to come back)."

Mitchell said he told his team, which was a mixture of older players and contributing sixth-graders, that the chance to play for the championship doesn't happen all the time. "I told them that this opportunity only comes about every so often in your life, whether at this level (or higher)" and that they needed to take care of the little things to achieve success.

Mitchell praised the play of Morris. "Caden had his best game of the year," he said, pointing to his offensive output as well as him mixing it up with the Red Devils in the paint.

In the consolation games Saturday, the Midland Trail boys captured a thrilling 29-26 win over Fayetteville on a buzzer-beating 3-pointer from Riley Dixon, and the Fayetteville girls defeated Valley 33-20.

In the boys outing, Fayetteville carried a 22-16 lead into the fourth quarter before Midland Trail caught fire, getting a pair of 3-pointers from both Dixon and Thomas Jones on their way to the comeback win.

Jones finished with nine points to lead the Patriots, and Ben Harrison scored nine for Fayetteville.

The Pirate girls led 17-7 at halftime en route to their conquest of Valley. Mia Calloway led the way with 10 points, including two 3-point goals. Hadassah Hamm and Hayleigh Newman scored six points each to lead the Greyhounds.

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Girls championship

Midland Trail

Raygen Parsons 2 0-0 4, Madison Rader 0 0-0 0, Rachel Pritt 2 0-4 5, Whitney Bibb 2 1-9 5, Ava Campbell 2 0-4 4, Jessi Mooney 1 1-6 3, Kiley Calloway 0 0-0 0, Holly Ward 0 0-0 0, Abby Parcell 0 0-0, Presley Walker 0 0-0 0, Stephanie Harrell 0 0-0 0, Brooke Ewing 0 0-0 0, Mahala Crist 0 0-0 0, Riley Harrell 0 0-0 0, Aubrey Spencer 0 0-0 0. Totals: 9 2-23 21

Oak Hill

Bella Holly 4 1-2 9, Marlee Wills 0 0-0 0, Kya Osborne 2 1-3 5, Natalie Craddock 0 2-2 2, Jenna Maynor 8 0-3 16, Kaidence Donnelly 1 0-0 3, Gabby Brown 1 0-0 2, Aubrey Conley 0 0-0 0, Andrea Smith 0 0-2 0, Maliyah Jones 0 0-0 0, Gracie Runyon 0 0-0 0, Lizzie Shuck 0 0-0 0, Serenity Bourgord 0 0-0 0, Audrey King 0 0-0 0, Kennedy King 0 0-0 0. Totals: 16 4-12 37

MT 5 3 8 5 — 21

OH 11 7 10 9 — 37

Three-point goals — MT: 1 (Pritt); OH: 1 (Donnelly). Fouled out — Maynor (OH)

Boys championship

Valley

Caden Morris 6 4-5 18, Cedric Coping 0 0-0 0, Shannon Smith 1 1-2 3, Von Brockman 1 0-0 2, Tavion Woods 1 6-11 8, John Neal 1 1-4 3, Damion Wright 0 0-0 0, Daniel Naylor 0 0-0 0, Dylan Issac 0 0-0 0, J.T. Smiley 0 0-0 0. Totals 10 12-22 34

Oak Hill

Trent Jones 0 2-4 2, Keelan Remy 0 0-1 0, Antoine Hicks 4 4-6 14, Caleb Compton 2 0-4 5, Carson Treadway 7 3-5 17, Tyler Colaiseno 1 0-0 2, Noah Floyd 1 0-0 2, Taron Thomas 0 0-0 0, Kennie Suttle 0 3-4 3, Jacob Brown 0 1-2 1, Jacob Schwarz 0 0-0 0, Jaden Lawson 1 1-2 3, Evan Martin 0 0-0 0, Jager Workman 1 0-0 3, Curtis Cunningham 0 0-1 0. Totals 17 14-29 52

V 5 10 7 12 — 34

OH 12 16 14 10 — 52

Three-point goals — V: 2 (Morris 2); OH: 4 (Hicks 2, Compton, Workman). Fouled out — Woods (V).

Girls consolation

Fayetteville

Amy Hollandsworth 2 1-4 5, Mia Calloway 4 0-0 10, Marleigh Bussard 0 0-0 0, Kinzlee Dove 3 1-3 7, Lilly Hrabosky 3 0-0 6, Kinslee Hildebrand 2 1-2 5, Clara Swank 0 0-0 0, Delaney Hay 0 0-0 0, Braley Hopkins 0 0-0 0, MaKayla Smith 0 0-0 0, Hallie Allen 0 0-0 0, Kailyn Thomas 0 0-0 0, Eden Skaggs 0 0-0 0, Kenzie Allen 0 0-0 0, Lexi Shrewsberry 0 0-0 0, Kimmie Lewis 0 0-0 0, Adriana Ibarra 0 0-0 0, Gwen Moneypenny 0 0-0 0, Reagan Calloway 0 0-0 0. Totals: 14 3-9 33

Valley

Hayleigh Newman 0 6-19 6, Riley Price 0 0-2 0, Raelyn Morris 1 0-0 2, Hadassah Hamm 1 4-6 6, Miranda Stover 0 0-0 0, Sakiah Hutchinson 1 2-2 4, Emily Toney 1 0-2 2, Brayleigh Coping 0 0-2 0, Ava Arthur 0 0-0 0. Totals: 4 12-33 20

F 8 9 7 9 — 33

V 4 3 2 11 — 20

Three-point goals — F: 2 (M. Calloway 2); V: 0. Fouled out — none.

Boys consolation

Midland Trail

Thomas Jones 3 1-6 9, Isaiah Harper 0 1-2 1, Hunter Carter 3 0-0 7, Jaxon Barnhouse 1 1-6 4, Aiden Weis 1 0-0 2, Elliott Harrell 0 0-0 0, Riley Dixon 2 0-0 6, Van Wood 0 0-0 0, Jackson Willis 0 0-0 0, Rykard Wood 0 0-0 0, Holden Grimmett 0 0-0 0, Gage Eades 0 0-0 0, Riley Petitt 0 0-0 0, Aaron Dunbar 0 0-0 0. Totals: 10 3-14 29

Fayetteville

Camryn Thomas 3 0-1 6, Ben Harrison 4 1-2 9, Levi Shrewsberry 1 0-0 3, Carson Nicolau 2 0-0 4, Andrew Hart 2 0-0 4, LaShawn Nicholes 0 0-0 0, Landen Bragg 0 0-0 0, Payton Hall 0 0-0 0, Tucker Bragg 0 0-0 0, Fletcher Good 0 0-0 0, Aiden Humphrey 0 0-0 0, Jadan Lewis 0 0-0 0, Parker Harrah 0 0-0 0, Thorpe Fussell 0 0-0 0, Henry Borgeson 0 0-0 0, Blayne Parsons 0 0-0 0, Tommy McKinney 0 0-0 0, Jasper Swafford 0 0-0 0. Totals: 12 1-3 26

MT 8 4 4 13 — 29

F 7 7 8 4 — 26

Three-point goals — MT: 6 (Jones 2, Carter, Barnhouse, Dixon 2); F: 1 (Shrewsberry). Fouled out — Hart (F).