It was one and done for both Luther Lions varsity basketball teams to become District Champions. Both teams got a bye in the Friday round of the weekend district tournament. Their Saturday road trip to Crescent gave each team a win and the district title. Next games on the march to the 2019 OSSAA State Basketball Tournament are Thursday in Mounds.
Both the girls and the boys kept huge leads the whole game and landed solid wins against Crescent, and the district champions title.
FINAL SCORES
LADY LIONS 52, Crescent 37
LIONS 63, Crescent 46.
Advancing to regionals, both teams will head to Mounds Thursday and play Pawnee. Pawnee girls are unranked, but a surprise 58-33 win over 17th ranked Mounds put the Lady Black Bears in the winners bracket. Luther girls are ranked 20th.
The Pawnee boys are ranked 19th, and they also beat Mounds, who are unranked, 72-41. Luther boys are ranked 14th.
Back to the district wins, there was impressive play from both Lions’ teams.
The Lady Lions showed tremendous teamwork with assists. Junior Raychel Stanfield led with five assists, followed by freshman Shawntae Silva with three, senior Caitlin Bailey with two and sophomore Bailie Wilds and senior Lauren Coates with one each.
Coates scored a stunning 18 points and got 12 rebounds, earning a double double and the team lead in both points and rebounds.
Stanfield scored 13 points and got four rebounds. Silva and Lindsay Kuhlman were the other Lady Lion scorers, Silva with six and Kuhlman with three. Silva also has two steals.
In the boys game, teamwork also secured the win. Eleven players scored points and 40 of their 63 points came through assists. Jake Lombard led the points game with 11, followed by Tyler Becker with ten, Syrus Grisby and Gerald McCauley with eight each, Cole Mills had seven, Luke Mohr with six (from two impressive three-pointers), Fredrik Greenhoward with four, Nick Hines with three and Drew Scheer, Peyton Wilson and Evan Hughes with two each.
Assists came from: Grisby six, Becker five, Mills three, Lombard two, Reed Wilson two, McCauley one and Zac Parsons one.
McCauley, who has been on a roll recently with double digit rebounds, reached an impressive benchmark in Saturday’s game, 200 rebounds. “Truly blessed to reach my benchmark 200+ rebounds! God is truly amazing! This is the beginning of my journey,” McCauley said on Twitter.
Before the district game, he was two rebounds away form the record and had six in the game to put his total at 204.
The Lions playoff games start at 6:30 and 8:30 Thursday night at Mounds
