For a second year in a row, the #2 Kennedale Wildcats (23-0) won the Whataburger Tournament, the 56th version of this classic tournament played the weekend after Christmas.
And, in what has to be some kind of record, the Wildcats met the Brock Eagles for the fifth time this season and defeated them in the championship game. This is the third tournament championship game that Kennedale has won over Brock this season. {{more}}
What makes this more interesting is that 2A Brock is currently ranked #1 in 2A basketball. The Eagles who have lost only to Kennedale this season had to go through 3A Burkburnett and 3A Abilene Wylie both ranked in the top ten in 3A basketball to get the championship game against the Wildcats. Kennedale won the game 65-50.
In the Brock, game scoring in double figures was Aundre Jackson (Sr), MVP for the tournament, who pumped in 24 points. Ty Charles (Sr), All-tournament team, scored 16. Kelon Doss (Sr), All-tournament team, came away with 11. V.J. Hughes (Jr) had 10. Colton Otts (So) finished the scoring with 4. Whataburger All-Tournament Team Blue division
Kennedale met private school Fort Worth Christian (5-6-1) in pool play on the opening day of the tournament and defeated the Cardinals 80-58. In this game eleven Cats scored. Scoring in double figures were Charles and Jackson with 17 each followed by Hughes with 11. Other Wildcats scoring were Trystan Carr (Sr) 7, K Doss 6, Brandon Conwright (So) 6, Daemar Jones (Sr) 4, Otts 4, Blake Ingram 2, Kole Hohenberger (Jr) 2 and Dominque Doss 1.
3A Pollok Central (17-7) was up next. Central was in the top 20 before the latest poll but has dropped to 23rd. Central could never find a way to stop the Wildcats in the first three quarters. In the first quarter it was 21-8 Cats. The halftime score was 42-19. Kennedale won the game 79-55. Charles led the scoring with 19 followed by Hughes 17, Jackson 15, Conwright 9, Otts 8, Ingram 4, Carr 4 and K Doss 3.
Whataburger All-Tournament Team Blue division
In the semifinals, the Wildcats faced a tough opponent in Frisco Lone Star (14-5), currently ranked #17 in 3A. It was a battle to establish dominance over a good opponent. Kennedale lead by 5 after the first quarter. Lone Star battled even in the second but could not overcome the 5 point Cats’ lead. Halftime score was 35-30. In the 3rd the Rangers chipped away the lead, cutting it to 1 point, 50-49. With Kennedale?s big four pinging away, the Wildcats took the 4th and won by a score of 72-65. Scoring in double figures for Kennedale were Hughes 19, Charles 17, Jackson 16 and K Doss with 12. Also scoring for the Wildcats was Conwright with 6 and Otts with 2.
In the championship game, the Brock Eagles started out strong as it has in the other 4 games played with Kennedale. As it has in other games, Brock tried to slow the game down to cut the Cats’ edge in quickness. Brock won the 1st by a score of 16-14. Wildcats showed some life by taking the 2nd and going into the half with a 33-28. Brock is a good team and demonstrated in the 3rd by completely controlling the quarter outscoring Kennedale by 11 and ending the third with a 46-40. But in the end, Kennedale allowed the Eagles only 4 points in the 4th while scoring 25. Kennedale won 65-50.
The Alvarado Indians (5-13) came to town last Friday night in the final game of Kennedale?s preseason. The Wildcats came away with a 75-49 win and a prefect preseason record. Nine Wildcats scored in the game. Scoring for Kennedale was Charles 26, Jackson 18, Hughes 11, K Doss 9, Conwright 5 and Ingram, Carr, D Doss and Otts with 2 each.
Kennedale starts district play Friday night at home against the Castleberry Lions with the varsity game starting at 8:00 p.m.
Comments are closed.