Ellington Girls, South Iron Boys Win 2021-2022 BRL Championship

(Annapolis) We crowned two Black River League Champions in Boys and Girls Basketball Saturday night. The top team in Class 2 Ellington Lady Whippets captured their second BRL championship in the last three years by defeating the South Iron Lady Panthers 52-41. The game started out as anticipated with both teams scoring quickly.

But the Lady Whippets were able to go into the locker room at halftime with a double-digit lead; outscoring the Panthers 13-to-6 in the second quarter.

Ellington continued to make the South Iron defense work in the second half, stretching their lead to a 20 with phenomenal ball movement.

Dylan Price, Gretchen Hackworth, and Kaylee King all scored in double figures for the Whippets. Head Coach David Burrows talks about the play of this tremendous trio.

Panther’s senior Guard Maddy Ayers led all scorers with 20 points. Ellington improves to 13-and-2 and South Iron suffers their first defeat of the season, falling to 13-and-1.

In the boy’s championship game, South Iron fought off a tough East Carter team to win 80-61. Although it was a double-digit win for the Panthers, it was back-and-forth in the first half and the Redbirds came out of the gate feeling frisky from three.

Junior Micah Thompson had nine points in the game, all three-pointers. Panther senior Drenin Dinkins was in his bag as well.

East Carter led the defending state champions 19-17 after the first quarter but South Iron went into the half with a 40-35 lead. Another big third quarter for the Panthers sparked a 22-7 run that widened the gap.

Dinkins was the Applebee’s of Farmington Player of the Game with 30 points, 8 rebounds and 6 assists. It’s the third straight Black River League Championship for South Iron. Coach Dusty Dinkins talks about the win.