Salado girls finish third in own tourney
Posted On: Sunday, Dec. 13 2009 05:30 AM
By Alex Byington
Killeen Daily HeraldSALADO – On the heels of its third straight rout following a loss to Lorena on Thursday, the Salado Lady Eagles locked up third place at the eighth annual Coach Smith Memorial basketball tournament with a 56-38 win over McGregor on Saturday.
"We would have liked to played at 1:30 (in the championship game) instead of at noon, but every time we step on the floor we expect to win so it's not anything to jump up and down about," said Salado coach Jeanette McKinney. "It's business and we want to take care of our business and when we don't we're disappointed in ourselves. But today they did a great job."
Holding the Lady Bulldogs without a basket through the first seven minutes of the game, scoring their first four points on free throws, host Salado (10-4) parlayed its stingy defense into a 15-4 run before McGregor post Danielle Brisby scored with 55 seconds left in the quarter. Before that bucket, the Lady Bulldogs, who were without 6-foot-4 leading scorer Sha Brown, missed their first seven shots and turned the ball over four times.
"Really, I didn't realize that," McKinney said. "We've been harping a lot on defense trying to get them to understand that defense will be what wins it for us – defense and rebounding."
Salado then kept on the offensive charge by closing out the final four minutes of the first half on a 16-6 run that included eight of a game-high 19 points from junior guard Hadley Joiner, who was 3-of-4 from three-point range.
In fact, it was Joiner's third and final three-pointer that stretched the Lady Eagles' advantage to a game-high 20 points (36-16) with 6:09 to play in the third quarter.
From there, Salado closed out the rout on an 8-5 run over the final 5:18 of the fourth quarter that included six of a season-high 11 points for junior reserve Billi Pipes. Also coming through for the Lady Eagles was junior guard Brennan Boydstun, who added 12 points.
"The strength that Brennan brings to us is that she keeps us composed on the floor," McKinney said. "Jokingly, I actually called her 'coach' out there because she turned to me and said something and I said, 'Oh, yeah, you're right.' It's nice to have that, and that comes with experience."
Lorena, which beat Salado 34-30 in the first game of pool play Thursday, took home the girls tournament championship after beating Liberty Hill on Saturday. Lorena was led by all-tournament MVP Katie Simpson. Joiner was Salado's lone representative on the all-tournament team.
Austin Travis routs Salado boys
SALADO – Outscored 26-6 in the first quarter, the Salado Eagles were doubled up 90-45 by Austin Travis in the boys fifth-place game Saturday at the eighth annual Coach Smith Memorial basketball tournament.
Unable to compete against Travis' fast-paced game and superior athleticism, the Eagles (6-6) could never recover from their first quarter collapse as the Rebels cruised through the next two quarters to lead 46-18 at halftime and 72-28 lead after the third.
Given the insurmountable lead, Travis was able to spread the scoring wealth with seven players with at least eight points and four with at least 11. Leading the way for the Rebels were senior K.K. Dixon with 16 points, followed by 13 from Boo Trevino and 11 points from both Tevin Nealy and Malcolm Stearns.
Salado was led with 12 points from junior post Shannon Ponder, who scored 10 in the first half, and 10 points from guard Colton Meiman.
St. Michael's defeated Brock 56-34 in the tournament championship game to claim first-place and Liberty Hill blasted Sinton 76-28 for third place.
Contact Alex Byington at
alexb@kdhnews.com or at (254) 501-7566.