Senior small forward Jack Willard scored a game-high 14 points, 12 of those from three-point shots, as the Chillicothe Hornets used a swarming defense to take down the Lawson Cardinals, 38-23 in the Cameron Tournament boys semifinals on Thursday night. Lawson scored seven points in the first half in dropping into Saturday afternoon’s third place game, while Chillicothe advances to the title game, Saturday at 3 PM.
Joining Chillicothe in the boy’s final will be the Maryville Spoofhounds, who got a buzzer-beating two-point shot by Eli Dowis to beat the LeBlond Golden Eagles, 45-43. LeBlond and Lawson will play in the boys third place game, Saturday at 12 noon.
In Thursday night’s boys consolation semifinals, Smithville beat Higginsville 46-40 while Cameron edged Excelsior Springs 56-54.
The girls consolation and championship semifinals were played on Wednesday night, with the Chillicothe Lady Hornets, behind 16 points from Harlie Jones and 14 from Hunter Keithley, beating Maryville 52-49. Serena Sundell had 24 points for the Lady ‘Hounds in the loss. Savannah routed Lawson in the other semifinal, 57-28.
In the girls consolation semifinals, Higginsville beat LeBlond 56-36 while Excelsior Springs was a 44-37 winner over the Cameron Lady Dragons.
Four games are scheduled (in two gymnasiums) on Friday night at Cameron High School, with four more on Saturday. The girls games will be played at 5:30 PM Friday, with the LeBlond/Cameron 7th place game and Higginsville/Excelsior Springs consolation final on the docket. At 7 o’clock, the Higginsville Husker boys play Excelsior Springs for 7th place with the Smithville Warriors battling the Cameron Dragons for the consolation boys honors.
Action starts Saturday at 10:30 in the morning, with the Maryville girls challenging Lawson for third place at 10:30, while the Lawson boy battle LeBlond for third place at noon. At 1:30, the Chillicothe Lady Hornets play Savannah, followed by the Chillicothe/Maryville boys title game at 3 o’clock.
