The Mercer girls and boys moved into a new early January tournament in 2017, with the same success as in 2016, sweeping the South Harrison Invitational with a pair of victories on Friday night.
Just as they had done a year ago at Milan, the Cardinals flew to the top of the Bethany “pecking order”, with the Mercer girls cruising to a 79-46 win over HDC Conference rival North Harrison, while the Mercer boys used strong defense to slow down a potent South Harrison attack in a 58-46 victory.
Mercer’s teams now have a well-earned week off before playing at Grundy County on Friday, January 20th and hosting Linn County in the Cardinal homecoming games on the following night. The Meadville Tournament will come up the following week for the Cardinals.
In Friday night’s third place games from Bethany, the Princeton Lady Tigers earned payback against South Harrison, giving the Lady Bulldogs a loss on their home floor, 59-46. Vivian Allen led the Lady Tigers with 17 points, while Jaelyn Thomas and Payton Goodin both added 13. The win avenged a 17 point loss suffered to South Harrison on Friday, January 6th at Princeton High School.
The Maysville boys claimed third place with a 75-64 win over the Putnam County Midgets.
The Princeton boys ended up 2-1 during their week of play in Bethany, taking the consolation hardware on Friday night by walloping Northeast Nodaway, 62-28. The Putnam County girls won the consolation final over East Harrison in blowout fashion, 56-25.
The Northeast Nodaway girls and North Harrison boys won the seventh place games, with the Lady ‘Jays beating Maysville, 42-38, while the Shamrocks took down East Harrison 47-39.
Weather concerns heading into the weekend forced South Harrison officials to finish their tournament with eight games on Friday night, with the 7th and 5th place games played at South Harrison Junior High, while the 3rd place and championship games were played in the South Harrison High School gymnasium.
