The annual HDC Conference Basketball Tournament is wrapped up for 2017-2018, with the championships won Saturday afternoon by the East Harrison Lady Bobcats and the Winston Redbirds.
The girls title game, after a pair of semifinal upsets by East Harrison and Mercer, went to the girls from Ridgeway and Cainsville, by the score of 47-45 over Mercer. The victory by the 3rd-seeded Lady Bobcats came after a semifinal win over Grundy County on Thursday night (60-50), and a first-round win over Tri-County on Wednesday afternoon (65-26).
Mercer’s road to the final saw the Lady Cardinals pick up a huge victory over the top-seeded North Harrison Lady Shamrocks, winning in Eagleville on Thursday afternoon, 44-42, avenging a recent regular season loss to the Eagleville girls that involved losing a second-half lead.
North Harrison’s girls rebounded from the Mercer loss for a 48-36 win over Grundy County in the third place game on Saturday afternoon, while in Monday night’s consolation final, Winston clipped Tri-County, 52-51.
In comparison to a wild girls tournament, the boys tournament generally stayed moving according to seeds, as the #1 seeded Winston Redbirds met the #2 seeded Mercer Cardinals in Saturday afternoon’s final. The ‘Birds hex over Mercer continued, as Winston rolled to a 61-33 victory, giving Coach Eric Lewis another HDC title. Gilman City earned, in its third try against North Harrison, its first victory of the year against the Shamrocks, 74-64. In Thursday’s boys semifinal round, Winston beat Gilman City 69-46 while Mercer took down North Harrison 54-36.
In Monday night’s boys consolation final, Jonathan Stimpson scored 26 and Caden Gann 23 points, leading the Grundy R-5 Panthers to a 71-62 win over East Harrison. Wayne Baxter had 10 points for Grundy R-5 as well.
