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Senath-Hornersville Christmas Tournament Semifinals: Campbell and Senath-Hornersville
SENATH, Mo. - The semifinal matchups of Senath-Hornersville’s Christmas tournament did not disappoint.
Both games were fairly close throughout the entire 32 minutes of play. Ultimately, the higher seeds were able to avoid an upset and make it to the Championship game on Friday.
On Thursday, Dec. 19, the No. 1 seeded Campbell Camels closed out a 62-50 win over Gideon.
Gideon entered the match on fire. They were able to carry over some momentum from their upset victory in the primary rounds against Cooter which was their first win of the season.
Junior Landon Weaver helped give the Bulldogs an early lead. As Campbell struggled to guard Weaver on the perimeter, he went on to score four unanswered three-pointers in the first quarter.
He had 12 of Gideon’s 20 points in the opening minutes, helping his team outscore Campbell which only managed 16 points in the first quarter.
The Camels quickly got adjusted to Weaver’s shooting game and held him scoreless in the second quarter. They pulled the lead to within one point at halftime, only trailing 30-29.
Campbell’s head coach Steve Fowler knew in order to win this game, his team’s defense would need to step up in the second half.
“We managed to do somethings right at the end, but we struggled in the first half,” Fowler said. “We weren’t hitting our assignments on defense and we weren’t running our offense. It was rough and Gideon played well.”
As they cracked down on defense, Gideon never scored more than 10 points for the remaining quarters after scoring 20 in the first.
It wasn’t until the last couple of minutes Campbell finally began to maintain a lead and pull away from the Bulldogs.
“We started executing and doing things right,” Fowler said. “We made some big shots, got some good looks and got some layups off of our defense. When we started doing that, we started to see a bit of separation, but you never can get any relief until that buzzer goes off.”
The final quarter was Campbell's best of the game. They put up 19 points behind the scoring efforts of junior Caiden Mayberry who contributed eight of those final points. This included a breakaway three-pointer as well as an “and one” bucket in which he sanked the free throw.
Mayberry would finish with a team-high 15 points. Fellow junior Drew Fowler matched Mayberry with 15 points of his own. They both had two three-pointers in the competition.
Senior Layden Kellum followed close behind with 14 points and junior Kennan Siebert also scored two three-pointers en route to his 12-point performance.
After his hot start, Weaver from Gideon finished with 13 points. Seniors Drake Montegomery led the Bulldogs with 15 points while Jacob Plunkett would put up 11.
The second game of the night proved to be just as entertaining as Senath-Hornersville barely survived Delta C-7 with a 63-52 victory.
Much like the Campell win over Gideon, Senath-Hornersville struggled to pull away until the final few minutes.
According to head coach Kyle Moore, Senath-Hornersville's shooting struggles almost cost them a trip to the Championship game.
“Delta came out and they were ready to play,” Moore said. “I personally felt like we weren’t. It was a tight one, but I think that was good for us and it will be good for us going into the championship game tomorrow.”
Moore noted his seniors to be significant reasons for this win.
For the second game in a row, Spencer Goff went off in the second half to pull his team ahead. After only having five points in the first half, Goff knocked down four three-pointers in the back half of play. He would finish with 19 total points on the night.
This comes after bringing his team to a win in the first round of the tournament with a 28-point performance over Naylor.
Along with Goff, Moore said Braden Roy’s performance helped secure the victory. Although he remained scoreless, Roy lifted the team's defensive efforts in the second half and led Senath-Hornersville in rebounds.
Along with those two seniors, Ricardo Gonzalez had 10 points and junior Jamarious White led the team with 23 points in the competition.
The main scorers for Delta C-7 were Carlos (C.J.) Wallace and Davon Stewart. Wallace had 17 points while Stewart trailed right behind with 16 points.
With a breath of relief, the Lions prepare for a rough competition against Campbell.
Both squads are now 7-1 on the season, only taking losses as warm-ups in the first games of the year.
Moore hopes this game against Delta C-7 better prepares them for the Camels on Friday night.
“Playing for a championship of any kind is huge, especially on our home floor,” Moore said. “Campbell is in our district so this is a big game either way, but now there is a championship on the line and that makes it even bigger.”