On Tuesday, Dec. 29 and Wednesday, Dec. 30, Great Mills High School hosted the annual Holiday Basketball Tournament. Broadcasting the live action was Baynet Radio’s John Hunt who covered all eight games.
On Tuesday, the action started in exciting fashion with The Chopticon Lady Braves battling to the final seconds in their loss to the Leonardtown Lady Raiders 45-44. After the first quarter ended in a 13-13 tie, the lady raiders took charge and ended the first half up 27-19.
Chopticon fought back to take the 33-32 lead at the end of the third quarter. Point Guard Dani McLoughlin led the Raiders in scoring with 14 points and Erin Mallory added 10 points. Chopticon was led with hard work in the paint and 14 points by Abreeleen Brown and 9 points each from Ashya Short and Kirstin Norris.
The second game on Tuesday was not as close as the Leonardtown Boys led by 10 seniors on varsity dominated the Chopticon Braves from the start winning 38-25. The Braves were led by Deangelo Bannister’s 8 points and the Raiders had a hot start from Tyler Gladu’s 2 three pointers and a total of 8 points.
Game three pitted the Great Mills Girls against La Plata. After a close first quarter the Hornet Girls took charge leading 21-7 at the half. Great Mills’ size and quickness was too much for La Plata in the 50-22 win La Plata was led by hard working Rachel Krogman’s 7 points and 7 rebounds. The Hornets balanced scoring attack was led by Chantel Thomas’ 10 points, 9 points from Tylita Butler and 8 points from Taquana Gordon.
The final Tuesday game was an exciting finished to the first day’s events. For the entire first half Great Mills boys and Walter Johnson battled to a 28-25 Hornets lead at the half. Walter Johnson was led by the five foot sophomore guard, Gladden Mejica who ran through the Hornets defense, exciting the crowd with premiere ball handling skills.
However, that was not enough. In the second half, the Hornets took charge and ran away with the game, winning 65-36. Walter Johnson was led in scoring by Haleed Hamadi’s 10 points. The Hornets got 22 points from Mykel Harris and 12 from Kameron Barker.
Day two of the tournament proved to be just as exciting. The action started with a consolation game between La Plata and Chopticon. The game was exciting as La Plata jumped out to an early lead and holding it into the second half, taking a seven point lead at 21-14.
Chopticon battled back led by All-Tournament player Abreellen Brown’s 18 points and Kirstin Norris’ 16 points. Both teams worked hard in the second half and the lady Braves came away with the 44-40 victory. La Plata was led by All-Tournament Player Rachel Krogman’s 10 points and 12 points from Jameya Thomas.
The Boys Consolation game between Chopticon and Walter Johnson was led by the Braves throughout but, the disciplined Walter Johnson team kept fighting back to stay close. Harrison Gibert led Walter Johnson with 13 points and Halid Hamidi added 11.
The Braves All-Tournament player, DeAngelo Bannister had 13 points and DJ Blackwell was hot from long range and added 12 points.
In the Ladies Championship Game, the first half was a defensive battle with Leonardtown leading only 2-0 after the first quarter and Great Mills was leading 12-9 at halftime. In this see-saw battle, the Lady raiders took the lead into the fourth quarter 25-23 behind their All-Tourney Player and talented guard Dani McLoughlin. Kate Finkleston added 11 points for the Raiders but, the Lady Hornets took charge in the last two minutes of the game and took the championship trophy 38-29. Great Mills Overall All Tourney Player had 10 points and their other All Tourney player
Chantel Thomas added 7 points.
The Boys Championship game got th
