The Grundy County girls basketball team continued their strong season with a tournament championship, beating the Mercer Lady Cardinals on Saturday night at Meadville High School, 54-46. Jandie Peterson had the most dramatic moment of the title game, a half-court heave that went in just before the first half buzzer, giving the Lady Panthers a 28-18 mid-game advantage.
Mercer cut the advantage to five points (39-34) after three quarters, but was unable to cut the lead further in the final quarter, as Peterson led the champion Lady Panthers with 16 points. Morgan Axtell had 15, and Aubrey Gann 14 for Grundy R-5. Gann had 10 rebounds, with Peterson handing out five assists, while Axtell and Gann both had five steals.
Rayne Kost, in the championship game defeat, paced the Lady Cardinals side with 17 points. The Grundy girls and boys will host the Meadville Eagles tonight (Monday night) in Galt at 6 and 7:30.
The Meadville boys gave the Mercer teams back-to-back losses in the championship games, with the Eagles besting the Cardinals, 60-046. Dominik Gannon led Meadville with 19 points, while Grey Porter had a game-high 20 points for Mercer. Dillon Seckington contributed 16 points to the host Eagles, with Parker Burton adding 10. Austin Nix had 10 points for the Cardinals.
The consolation finals and third place games at Meadville were all played on Friday night, with the Hale Lady Cardinals downing Northwestern in the girls consolation final, 62-52, with the Hale boys joining the girls as consolation winners, 70-46 over Grundy County. The Tina-Avalon Lady Dragons won a low-scoring third place game over Linn County, 30-20, with the Linn County boys winning a hard-fought third place game, 77-72 against the Northwestern Eagles.
