Third Corner crown for Wolverines in four years

For the third time in four years East Mills has captured the Corner Conference Boys Basketball Tournament Championship.
Playing on its home court, the No. 2 seeded Wolverines used a quick start to gain the momentum and a lead that swelled to as many as 14 points and then held off a late comeback attempt in a 54-46 win over top-seeded Bedford.
The win was revenge of sorts for the Wolverines (12-4 overall, 7-1 in the conference) who lost in last year’s conference finals 51-42 to the Bulldogs (13-3 overall, 9-0 in the conference).
“We had great effort on defense, and we did the best we could rebounding against them,” said East Mills coach Kevin Schafer.  “We shot well from the three point line which was big. Camden and Beau led us offensively and I thought Cooper (Hagen) was outstanding on defense.  Really proud of the whole team.”
East Mills led 45-36 at the end of three quarters and the back-to-back three-pointers by Mason Camden and Beau Burdic extended the lead to 51-37 with less than five minutes to go.
But the Bulldogs responded by rattling off nine straight points to get within 51-46 with less than three minutes to go. That was, however, as close as they would get. The Wolverines would hit 3-of-4 free throw down the street to secure the win.
Camden topped the Wolverines with a game-high 26 points. Burdic chipped in 17 points.
Quentin Dalton’s 18 points led Bedford.

Semifinals

East Mills 56,
Stanton 36
East Mills used a 15-4 third quarter run to blow a 12-point halftime lead wide open in a 56-36 win over Stanton in the Corner Conference Boys Basketball Tournament semifinals Thursday in Bedford.
“Our defense caused a number of steals which led to transition buckets,” said East Mills coach Kevin Schafer. “Our three-point shooting came around after the first quarter. I’m happy with our post players making some key buckets as well.”
Mason Camden poured in 26 points and Zayne Graybill added 10 for the Wolverines.
Brodee Sowers had a double-double with 13 points and 12 rebounds to pace Stanton.

Bedford 55,
Fremont-Mills 22
Bedford’s defense never let Fremont-Mills get into a rhythm in a 55-22 win over the Knights in the Corner Conference Boys Basketball Tournament semifinals Thursday on the Bulldogs’ home court.
The Bulldogs led 21-4 after a quarter and the Knights never were able to puncture that lead.
Quentin Dalton had 19 points and John Deemer 13 to lead Bedford.
Fremont-Mills was led by Mason Reed’s 16 points.

Quarterfinals

East Mills 67,
Hamburg 27
East Mills scored the game’s first 14 points and led 40-1 before Hamburg could even muster a field goal in a 67-27 rout in the Corner Conference Boys Basketball Tournament Quarterfinals last Tuesday in Malvern.
The Wolverines’ performance was night and day just a week ago when the head coach Kevin Schafer’s team could not find its shooting touch nor contain Hamburg’s size in a narrow 66-57 win.
“The whole first half we played really well,” Schafer said after Tuesday’s game. “We struggled against them the other night. We struggled shooting it and we struggled defending them. They were scoring. We played more 2-3 (zone) this time and their bigs didn’t hurt using a 7-0 run to take a 33-26 lead with 3:47 to go.
But, once again, Sidney would rally. They cut the lead back to 34-31 with 22.1 to go, but the Wolverines would miss a pair of free throws that would have iced the game.
And Foster, once again, came up big. Her three-pointer at the buzzer sent the game to the first overtime.
Each team would score just three points in the first of the OTs to send it to a second.
It was in that final four-minute frame the Wolverines finally took control for good. Hagen’s runner with 3:34 to go made it 39-37. The Cowgirls would answer with a free throw, but Hagen would put them away, going 4-of-6 over the final 1:58 to secure the win. Sidney was held without a field goal in the second overtime.
“I think we’ve seen in different games there are times she hasn’t scored a lot and then there’s game where she does or someone else does,” Moreno said. “Ellie did a great job on defense, and she had a good game the other night. She always finds a way to contribute. A lot of these girls don’t care if they score. They pride themselves on rebounding or locking someone down on defense.”
With leading scorer Caitlyn Crouse bottled up by the Cowgirls’ box-and-one defense, East Mills needed every point it could manage in the defensive slugfest.
“She’s our high scorer so we had to have other players step up,” Moreno said. “They all can make shots. It took reminding them that they’re good scorers too, you can take a lane and go to the basket; if you’re open shoot it.”
All 12 of Crouse’s team-high points came in the first half. Ava Grindle added nine points and nine rebounds, and Isabella Blanton added seven points.
Foster led Sidney with 13 points.
The Wolverines (13-3 overall, 7-1 in the conference) will play for the school’s first ever Corner Conference Tournament title Friday against Fremont-Mills.
“We definitely want to be healthy,” Moreno said. “We have some sickness going around. I said after the game we didn’t come this far to not play well in the conference championship game. We have a young team and they’re excited to make school history, but we don’t have a lot of experience being in this game so we’re going to remind them to play within themselves and get a good game plan and stay focused.”

Fremont-Mills 57,
Bedford 35
Fremont-Mills relied on its relentless defense in a 57-35 win over Bedford in the Corner Conference Girls Basketball Tournament semifinals last Wednesday in Malvern.
The Knights’ aggressive man-to-man defense never allowed the Bulldogs (9-5) to get comfortable all game long.
“They had a good ball handler who is really shifty and tough to guard, and we knew it would be hard, but we wanted to make it tough for her bringing the ball up,” said Fremont-Mills coach Brett Weldon of Bulldog point guard Aniya Hardee. “I think we did a good job of that. We also helped really well on defense, and we closed out on their shooters. The pressure sort of took over there in the second half.”
With the win, the Knights advanced to its fourth straight conference tournament final with a match up against East Mills in Bedford Friday night.
The Knights led 29-15 at the half against the Bulldogs. They ballooned that lead to 37-17 with a quick 8-2 run to open the third quarter. Bedford cut that lead back to 39-23 late in the third quarter but that is as close as they would get.
Brooklyn Weldon’s third three-pointer of the game gave Fremont-Mills their biggest lead of the game at 51-26 with 5:58 to go in the game.
The Knights’ offense wasn’t always on target against the Bulldogs – 36.4 percent shooting from the field including 5-of-29 from behind the arc – but got buckets when they needed, many in transition following turnovers.
“We have different girls who seem to shoot it well on different nights,” Weldon said. “If we all shoot it well on the same night, we might be dangerous there. But they were packing it in and daring us to shoot, and we hit a couple that did help spread their defense out. We also did a job turning our defense into offense.”
Weldon led the way with 21 points for Fremont-Mills. Reese Gute and Saige Mitchell added eight points each. Lana Alley added seven points and seven rebounds.
Delani Dalton led Bedford with nine points.

Quarterfinals

East Mills 67,
Hamburg 4
Top-seeded East Mills opened the Corner Conference Tournament with a dominating 67-4 victory over Hamburg in last Monday’s quarterfinals in in Malvern.
Caitlyn Crouse led four Wolverines in double-figures with 23 points. Jacey Vandenberg added a season-high 18 points and Ava Grindle chipped in 14 and Izzy Blanton 10.
Hayley Mullins and Emilea Barrett scored two points each for Hamburg.

Sidney 39,
Griswold 33
Sidney edged Griswold 39-33 in the Corner Conference girls basketball tournament quarterfinals last Monday in Malvern.
Addyson Foster scored 10 points and Charli King, Alyssa Dowling and Czandrya Morgan added six points each.
 Brystal Wyman and Carsyn Adams scored nine points each for Griswold.

Bedford 50,
Stanton 43
Caroline Simmons scored a game-high 23 points to lead Bedford to a 50-43 win over Santon in Corner Conference Tournament quarterfinals in Bedford.
Cooper Stephens put in 15 points and Piper French 13 to lead Stanton.
Kaylynn Moore added 14 points for Bedford.

Fremont-Mills 68,
Essex 19
Three players scored in double-figures for Fremont-Mills in a 68-19 win over Essex in the Corner Conference girls basketball tournament quarterfinals last Monday.
Lana Alley led the Knights with 20 points. Brooklyn Weldon added 14 and Carlie Nuckolls 10.
Essex was led by Mariska Kirchert’s 10 points.