Mercer girls, behind Owens’ 25, rout Meadville in tournament semifinals

The Mercer Lady Cardinals picked up 25 points from Bailey Owens, 19 from Lindsay Wyatt, 15 from Nicole Kost, and 11 points from Emily Sample in cruising to a 77-32 win over the host Meadville Lady Eagles, in Thursday night’s semifinals from the Meadville Invitational Tournament.  Karlin Fairchild had 10 points for Meadville, who slides into a third place game on Friday night at 7 o’clock against the Tina-Avalon Lady Dragons.  

Mercer, the #2 ranked team in the state in the latest MBCA Class 1 poll, will challenge the Hale Lady Cardinals in the championship game at 4 o’clock on Saturday afternoon.  Hale moved to the championship round with a 42-18 shutdown of Tina-Avalon.  Devin Grossman paced HHS with 17 points.

The #2 seed Northwestern Eagles won a high-scoring affair with #3 seed Mercer in Thursday night’s boys semifinals, taking an 85-75 win.  Garrett Johnson led NHS with 33 points, with Lucas McCollum adding 16, Wade Adams 13, and Jaden Humphrey 11.  For Mercer, taking just its third loss of the season, Bryer Noe had 32 points, with Cash Hartley contributing 21.

Northwestern will play the host Meadville Eagles in Saturday night’s (5:30 PM) title game, as Meadville took a 62-38 semifinal win over Linn County on Thursday night.  Ryan Young led the Eagles with 16 points while Jase Cowan added 13.  Kade Ward paced the Mustangs with 13.

Here is the schedule for the final two nights of the Meadville Tournament:

FRIDAY:

Girls 5th place : Northwestern vs. Grundy County – 4:30 PM

Boys 5th place : Bucklin-Macon County vs. Tina-Avalon – 5:45 PM

Girls 3rd place : Meadville vs. Tina-Avalon – 7:00 PM

Boys 3rd place : Mercer vs. Linn County – 8:15 PM

SATURDAY:

Girls Championship : Mercer vs. Hale – 4:00 PM

Boys Championship : Meadville vs. Northwestern – 5:30 PM