Notebook: Lebanon Holiday Classic
An annual Holiday Classic at Lebanon brought some very good competition as Kokomo, Gary 21st Century, and Marquette Catholic are very good teams. Over the two games in which teams played three games, we saw a lot of good competition. I recap the placement games on a very competitive Friday evening.
7th place game: International 79, Herron 66
With 6’11 center Mawich Kachjaani in the middle Herron really struggled to get anything to go. International easily won this game after being ahead by double digits the entire game. Ty Oldham did his best to help Herron back into it but it was too little too late. International didn’t let Herron get in the paint much at all and forced them to shoot the ball from the perimeter. A good showing for International.
Top Performers:
Mawich Kachjaani (I): 31 points, 16 rebounds, 4 blocks
Ty Oldham (H): 29 points, 7 rebounds
5th place game: Heritage Christian 47, Greenfield-Central 34
Heritage Christian got off to a quick start but Greenfield was matching them shot for shot until the second quarter where Heritage Christian outscored Greenfield-Central 15-6. After this, Greenfield-Central couldn’t get anything else going and started to get stagnant while Heritage Christian was getting the occasional bucket. A good win for Heritage Christian.
Top Performers:
Zach Meus (HC): 14 points
Brian Long (GC): 10 points, 9 rebounds
3rd place game: Kokomo 52, Lebanon 46
Kokomo was heavily favored in this game and their senior duo of Trajan Deckard and Anthony Barnard led them to the win. They combined for 33 points and 10 rebounds. Jaylen Washington did his best to keep Lebanon close scoring 15 points and Carson Burtron dished out five assists. Lebanon trailed by 10 points at one time but never let it get away from them more than that.
Top Performers:
Trajan Deckard (K): 17 points
Anthony Barnard (K): 16 points, 10 rebounds
Jaylen Washington (L): 15 points
Championship Game: Gary 21st Century 77, Marquette Catholic 73
In a rematch of an earlier game from this season that Marquette Catholic won by 12, Gary 21st Century got their revenge winning the Lebanon Holiday Classic. Gary 21st used a big third quarter to defeat Marquette as they scored 26 points in the frame. Marquette Catholic almost came back and stole the win but Gary 21st had an answer for every Marquette basket. DeAndre Gholston fouled out with five minutes to go in the game but that didn’t have any effect on Gary as they held on for the victory.
Top performers:
Colin Kenney (MC): 28 points
DeAndre Gholston (21st): 23 points, 11 rebounds