Sand Mountain Tourney Recap
By Kelsey Prose
Christmas celebrations could not begin until the annual Sand Mountain Tournament for the area girls’ and boys’ basketball teams commenced. The tournament took place Monday, December 14, and carried on through until the championship games on Saturday, December 19. All games were held at the DeKalb County Coliseum. No. 8 Section and No. 9 Crossville started off the tournament on Monday for the varsity girls. Madison Armstrong led Section in their win with a game-high 22 points while Savannah White and Jennifer Vega scored 13 points each. Section led the game after each period and won the game with a final score of 65-46. On Thursday the 17th, Plainview took on Fyffe, and with the help of the Bears’ Hallie Brown and Fyffe’s 22 turnovers, Plainview took the 67-42 win. Brown had a game-high 18 points and five rebounds while Kamie Sanders brought 14 points. The Bears scored 11 3-pointers while the Devils only scored 3. No. 2 Ider played their first game against the No. 7 North Sand Mountain Bison and won 69-52 to advance to the tournament’s semifinal round, where they met up with Plainview. The Lady Bears defeated the higher-ranked Ider Hornets in the semifinal round 67-31. Saydi Jackson scored a game-high 13 points for the Lady Bears while Payton Blevins brought in 12 points. The Lady Bears were 17 of 26 for 2-point field goals. Jocelyn Hatfield and Elaine Puckett came down with nine rebounds apiece and helped push the Lady Bears to the championship game against Sylvania. The Sylvania Rams used a fourth-quarter scoring run to fly past the Lady Bears and claim the championship on Saturday. The game was tied at 34 in the last minutes of the third quarter. Then the Rams went on a 9-2 scoring drive at the beginning of the fourth quarter to help push them to the 50-39 victory.
Payton Blevins was the Lady Bears’ highest scorer with 9 points, and Saydi Jackson came down with eight total rebounds. The Sylvania Rams upset the top-ranked Pisgah in their semifinal round 78-51. Kenadie Lee was named the tournament’s MVP, along with teammates Leianna Currie, Anna Farmer, and Ambriel Stopyak joining the all-tournament squad. The All-Tournament Team consisted of Plainview’s Payton Blevins and Halle Brown, Geraldine’s Gracey Johnson, NSM’s Jessi Weldon, Section’s Madison Armstrong, Ider’s Makinley Traylor, and Pisgah’s Kallie Tinker. For the varsity boys tournament, the Geraldine Bulldogs barely held on to secure their 76-74 victory against the Section Lions in the opening round. Fyffe took on Pisgah in the first round and won 77-62. Xavier Works had 23 points, Parker Godwin scored 21, and Tate Goolesby added 13 points to help secure the Red Devils early win.
Fyffe led 36-31 at halftime but then went on a 31-13 third-quarter scoring run to put the game out of reach for the Eagles. North Sand Mountain took a big win over the Ider Hornets 81-46 to advance to the next round. No. 1 Plainview took on Crossville and secured a big first-round win 83-26. Bryce Luther scored 14 points for the Bears, while Ty Griggs came in with 12 points. The Bears were 60% from the 2-point field goal and 50% from the 3-point field goal. Dylan Haymon came down with seven total rebounds and won the overall rebounding game 31-19. Fyffe lost a hard-fought battle to North Sand Mountain in one of the semifinal rounds of the tournament. NSM took advantage of the second quarter and scored 26 points to Fyffe’s 3 points, while Brody Dalton was Fyffe’s top scorer with 19 points and 13 rebounds. Russ Marr was NSM’s top scorer with 30 points, and Luke Maples was close behind with 27 points. That brought Geraldine and Plainview to face off in the second semifinal round. Plainview’s Cole Millican finished with 21 points, and ten steals to secure the Bears’ 86-51 win over the Bulldogs. Dylan Haymon scored a total of 14 points, while Luther and Underwood scored 10 points apiece. The Bears took advantage of Geraldine’s 24 turnovers to their 9. The championship game came down to Plainview and North Sand Mountain on Saturday afternoon. Luke Smith stole the show with a game-high 26 points and eight total rebounds. Cole Millican added 23 points and the Bears used a third-quarter run of 29-9 to secure their fifth straight Sand Mountain championship. The Bison led 50-48 at halftime, but the Bears adjusted during the break and took the lead to 56-50. Cole Millican was named the tournament MVP, and teammates Luke Smith, Jonah Williams, and Dylan Haymon were added to the all-tournament team. Other all-tournament team members included Fyffe’s Tate Goolesby, Xavier Works, Brody Dalton, NSM’s Russ Marr, and Luke Maples, Geraldine’s Ridge Berry, and Section’s Alex Guinn.