Risco, Clarkton, Cooter, Gideon advance in Tri-County Conference Tournament

RISCO – Competition was fierce Tuesday at the Roy Hon Gymnasium when eight area high school basketball teams competed in the Tri-County Conference Basketball Tournament preliminary round.

The bracket pit the host, first-seeded Risco, against the visiting eight-seed North Pemiscot Mustangs; featured a four-five contest, the Holcomb Hornets against the Clarkton Reindeer; included a two-seven matchup, the Cooter Wildcats against the Southland C-9 Rebels; and found the three-seed Delta C-7 Chargers against the six-seed Gideon Bulldogs.

__Risco 75, North Pemiscot 25__

The nearly unstoppable and experienced Tigers made short work of the young Mustangs, final score 75-25.

North Pemiscot Head Coach Matt Babb, in his first year at the Mustang's helm, said he started the season with seven players.

"But we had one move," Babb said. "So we have two freshmen, three sophomores and one junior.

Risco Tiger C.J. Blankenship at the hoop Tuesday at Risco.Photo by Steve Hankins

"The junior's only had two years' basketball experience," the coach explained. "We've lost 19 games and won one. Practice is basically going over skills. We're building a program from the ground up and the kids are dedicated." 

North Pem started Miles Brown III, Blake Hamm, Timothy Lahman, Jr., Carson Luye, the Mustangs' high scorer with seven points, and Marshall Vaughn. Sixth man River Garner saw action as well.

The Tigers (17-3) are riding high after posting a 79-69 win over a top-notch Class 1 District 2 Richland (17-5) team, Risco Head Coach Brandon Blankenship said.  

"That was a big District 2 matchup," the coach said proudly. "We haven't had the seed meeting yet.

"But it should've locked up the one seed for us, for that District," he continued. "Our guys are playing with a whole lot of confidence right now. We feel real good. We feel real good about the tournament being here at our house, too."

Blankenship doesn't underestimate any Tiger opponents, especially the Reindeer.

"It's going to be a tough matchup," Blankenship said of Thursday's semifinal. "Clarkton has a strong defense and they've got a good coach over there, Cole McBroom. They'll be ready."

All 11 members of Risco's varsity squad rotated through the preliminary round. Blankenship started Landon Burke, Eli Rodgers, Owen Fortner, Sammy Smith, who dropped 16 for the Tigers and C.J. Blankenship.

__Clarkton 54, Holcomb 37__

The 7-15 Reindeer shattered a four-game losing streak by defeating the 5-17 Hornets, who coincidentally obliterated a seven-game dump of their own January 23 by dismantling Clarkton on Reindeer property, 61-57.

"Huge win tonight," McBroom said. "Huge.

"They got us a couple weeks ago in a game where we really turned it over a lot," he added. "Tonight, I know we had some turnovers in the second half. But we went into halftime with ZERO turnovers. I mean, that's what won us the game. Fewer turnovers equals more layups and free throws."

Clarkton�s Amauri Gorman scopes out the rim Tuesday at Risco. Photo by Steve Hankins

Despite Holcomb's list of injured-in-action players - several team members wore ankle braces and favored one foot or the other - the Hornets' defense applied pressure on the court throughout the outing.

"Coach (John) Hixson, he's won a LOT of games," McBroom said. "He does a good job.

"Coach Hixson won a District title coaching at Clarkton," he emphasized. "Tonight, we just took care of the ball and we were able to get everybody in. It's a good night to be a Reindeer."

Hixson started Luke Patterson, quick draw with 14 points Noah Kenner, Landon Smith, Bryce McNabb, and Matt Russom.

McBroom anticipates a ground assault and missile barrage Thursday.

"It's a FUN game every time we play Risco," McBroom said. "They are really, really good.

"They're 17-3 for a reason," he admitted. "They're talented. They're well-coached. They probably watched this game and noticed some things that we did. And they're gonna be indeed ready for those things."

In addition, Clarkton faces Risco on Tiger home turf at arguably the tightest, loudest, most reverberating, old-school hardwood court in the conference.

"Risco is a tough place to beat Risco," McBroom confessed. "That's for dang sure.

"The atmosphere that's gonna be here Thursday is gonna be rockin," he said. "Coach Blankenship is a whole lot better at Chess than I am. So I'm excited for the matchup."

Clarkton started top shooter with 24 points Amauri Gorman, Alex Juarez, James Johnson, Kaleb Hunter and Clayton Godsey.

__Cooter 74, Southland 60__

Cooter (14-7) took out Southland (3-18) 74-60 in preliminary action and goes head to head with a surprise opponent Thursday, the Gideon Bulldogs.

Southland Head Coach Tyre Washington complimented Cooter's program, saying, "They're known to be one of the best teams" in the conference.

"We usually play well against them," Washington said. "So this will be a fun and exciting game.

Gideon Bulldog Hayden Lacewell fires a layup Tuesday against Delta C-7 defenders at the Tri-County Conference Tournament at Risco. Photo by Steve Hankins

"We had a barn-burner the first game," he stressed. "It kind of got away from us in the fourth quarter. But this is a group of kids that we look forward to playing."

Cooter's Tyson Banks landed 13 buckets and dropped four, three-point bombs to lead the Wildcats' scoring. Coach David Mathis, in his 11th season guiding the pride, started Ethan Strickland, Jayden McLevain, Ryce Lynn, Caleb Gunnels and Banks.

The Rebels started Camden Washington, Logan McCay, Knoah Beal, Jeremiah McMinn and Trace Gibson.

__Gideon 66, Delta C-7 60__

The prelim's upset of the evening was 7-14 Gideon's 66-60 victory over 8-13 Delta C-7.

Perhaps the key to that win was the planned shut down of Delta's ace shooter Carlos "C.J." Wallace, who was limited to just seven points Tuesday.

Gideon's Landon Weaver scored four points for the Bulldogs, and said making Wallace's life difficult on the court Tuesday was intentional.

"We face-guarded C.J. the whole game," Weaver said. "That was part of the game plan.

"We beat 'em last time out," he added. "They went and beat Clarkton and Holcomb. But we came out and did what we needed to do. We had to attack inside a lot because they came at us with that one-three-one. That makes it hard to shoot threes. So we had to go hard inside a lot."

Delta led at the end of the first period 14-10.

But Gideon lit the fires and led by two at the half, 29-27, 49-41 at the end of three and 66-60 at the final buzzer.

Gideon's Drake Montgomery put up 27 points for the Bulldogs. Hayden Lacewell scored 18 and Alex Deprow landed 11.

The Tri-County Conference Tournament continues Thursday with Clarkton facing Risco at 6 p.m. and Gideon squaring off against Cooter immediately following at 7:30 at Risco High School.