Championship Games Set After Exciting Night Of Black River League Semifinals On J98

(Annapolis) We started the semi-finals of the BRL tournament with the South Iron Lady Panthers dominating the Bunker Eagles 85-31. South Iron got scrappy in the first quarter, coming down with multiple steals and offensive rebounds to jump out to an early 20-10 lead.

The Panthers went into halftime on a 31-5 run, leading 51 to 15. It was more of the same for the Panthers as they cruised to our final score. Panthers Maddie Ayers and Allecia Cornell played so well that both ladies were our Applebee’s of Farmington Players of the Game. Ayers put up a triple-double with 20 points, 12 assists, and 13 steals while Cornell scored 27 points and cashed in from beyond the arc, connecting on 5 triples. Head Coach Lawrence Graves says his team buys in defensively.

South Iron remains undefeated at 13-0 while Bunker falls to 4-7.

The next game saw the boys take the court as the East Carter Redbirds beat the eighth-ranked team in Class 1 Bunker Eagles 75-58. The Redbirds jumped out to an early lead 21-12 in the first thanks to some great play from senior guard Preston Turner…

Bunker made is as close as a nine-point game in the second half but East Carter kept their lead til the end. Turner was our Applebee’s of Farmington Player of the Game with 34 points and 10 rebounds. East Carter Coach Jordan Penn says Turner’s aggressiveness is important to the team…

East Carter improves to 11-4 and Bunker falls to 9-3.

Our second girl’s semifinal saw the Top Ranked Team in Class 2 take a defensive slugfest from East Carter 56-41. It was a low-scoring first half, but Whippets guard Kaylee King shouldered the load for 12 of Ellington’s 20 first-half points.

In the third quarter, it was an offensive battle between King and Redbird’s guard Brooklyn Kearby. Both ladies answered each other with 13 points each in the quarter. However, late in the third, the Lady Whippets were able to make a run and get up double digits heading into the fourth and eventually the game.

Our Applebee’s of Farmington Player of the Game was Kaylee King with 29 points. Ellington Coach David Burrows talks about her performance.

Ellington improves to 12-2 and will face South Iron in the championship game Saturday at 4:45 on J98. East Carter moves to 6-6 and plays Bunker in the third-place game.

In our final game of the evening, the South Iron Boys made a spectacular second-half push to down Ellington 81-57. It wasn’t the usual script for South Iron as the Ellington Whippets were the story of the first half, keeping it close and only trailing 30-28 in the second quarter.

South Iron led by eight at the half but a big third quarter propelled the Panthers to a victory.

South Iron outscored Ellington 25-4 in the third quarter. Panther senior DJ Prater was the Applebee’s of Farmington Player of the Game with 21 points, 15 rebounds and 8 assists. Panthers coach Dusty Dinkins talks about Prater’s game.

Ellington Sophomore Brett Gore led the Whippets in scoring with 24 points.

South Iron improves to 15-2 and will play East Carter in the championship game Saturday around 6:30 on J98. Ellington falls to 4-10 and will play Bunker in the third-place game. Coverage of the championship games will begin Saturday with a Fliegs Equipment Pregame Show at 4:45 on J98.

Full Game Audio…

South Iron 85- Bunker 31: