5th District Jr. High Basketball Tournament

On Friday March 8th the 5th district held their district tournament for boys Junior High basketball in Aberdeen.  Local teams included the 7th and 8th grade teams from Tigert, as well as the 8th grade team from Grace.  Unfortunately, due to some illness and injury the Grace 7th grade was short on players and had to withdraw from the tournament.  The three remaining local teams represented Caribou County well and had some exciting games. 

It was the Tigert 7th grade that started things off for the tournament.  They entered the tournament as the number three seed and faced the number two seeded Malad Knights in the opening round. Out of the gate, the Cardinals looked to be in trouble early as they quickly found themselves trailing 10-2 in the closing seconds of the first quarter.  Just beating the buzzer, RJ Thompson hit a jumper, giving Soda only their second basket in the game and ending the quarter down 10-4.  

Despite beating the press that Malad put on, the ball wouldn’t fall for Soda.   Soda would still trail as the first half came to a close down 17-10.  As the third period got going, the Cardinals tightened up their defense and they held the Knights to just two points in the quarter.  

Starting the fourth, Soda trailed 19-15 and it felt as though the momentum had shifted in their advantage.  Soda would go on a 6-0 run in the first minute of play, including an and-one by Drayden Horsley that gave them their first lead of the game.  By the midway point of the quarter each team had added just one basket apiece and the score was 23-21 in Soda’s favor.  As Malad continued to go to the full court press, Soda took advantage, leading to some open layups and extending their lead to 27-21.  Unfortunately for Soda, Malad got into the bonus and took advantage of some free shots from the stripe.  

In the end, however, the Cardinal defense did enough and they would come out on top winning 31-27.  

With just four teams in the tournament for the 7th grade, this win put the Cardinals into the championship game against a very tough West Side team.  The Pirates came in as the number one seed and easily defeated Aberdeen to make it to the title game.  In the championship game, the Cardinals fought hard against the top seeded Pirates, but despite their efforts found themselves down 15-8 after the first quarter.  

The Cardinals fared a little better in the second as they slowed down the perimeter shooting by the Pirates, yet they were still trailing 24-16 at the halftime break.  

In the third, West Side hit yet another three point basket to go with their other six points in the quarter, while Soda only made two field goals and a foul shot.  After three, the deficit had grown to 33-21.  In the final period, Soda was able to match their highest scoring quarter but allow West Side to have their best quarter of the game.  In the end, the Cardinals fell short with a score of 49-31 and had to settle for second place. Tagen Lewis led the Cardinal scoring with 16 points.  

During all of this, the 8th grade tournament was taking place simultaneously in the neighboring gym.  Coincidentally, the first round matchup in this one would pit number five seed Soda up against number one seed Grace.  Grace would come out and show why they were awarded the number one seed.  With three different players making three point shots in the first, they took an early commanding lead of 13-4 in the first quarter.  The second was more of the same, as the Grizzlies extended their lead and went into halftime leading 24-9.

The third period saw the Cardinals put up their best scoring quarter of the game with eleven points.  However, the Grizzlies would maintain the lead and go into the final period still up 37-20.  The fourth would not be kind to the Cardinals as they struggled to get shots to fall.  Even with Grace calling off the dogs, they outpaced Soda 9-1 in the quarter and rolled to a 46-21 victory.  

For the Cardinals 3 and 21 would each have 9 points in the game while the Grizzlies would have seven of their 8 players score, with Carter Mecham leading the way with 12 points.  With that outcome, Soda would move to the consolation portion of the bracket to take on Aberdeen and Grace would move to the championship game against Malad. 

In the consolation game, Soda would struggle in the first and end up trailing 10-4.  The second period would go their way, however, as they would outscore the Tigers and take a 16-14 lead into the half.  The momentum would swing once again in the third to favor Aberdeen and they would regain the lead, finishing the quarter up 28-25.  

Lack of offensive output and missed foul shots would doom the Cardinals in the fourth as they added only six more points and ultimately went down by a final score of 42-31.  Jaxson Horsley would lead the scoring for the Cardinals with 14 points.  

In the championship game, the Grizzlies came out looking very good as they jumped out to a 10-0 lead, forcing Malad to use an early timeout.  After the timeout, Malad went on a run of their own and the quarter ended with Grace now only leading 17-16.  From there the scoring would go back and forth with several lead changes.  

At the half, the Grizzlies trailed 30-27.  The third was more of the same, as the lead continued to go back and forth, but when the quarter ended it would be the Grizzlies once again leading 42-40.  At this point Kooper Smith for Grace would be a big reason Grace was still in the game as he would have nine points through three quarters.  During the fourth, Grace’s leading scorer on the year Carter Mecham would take over, putting up 13 of his game high 26 points helping put the Grizzlies over the top and winning 61-52 claiming the 8th grade district championship.  Grace’s head coach Clint Gilbert commented, “They’re a great group and I’m going to miss them.”  Congratulations to all three teams on a great season and tournament.