Milan wins pair of Thursday night road tests at Linn County

The Milan Wildcat basketball teams started the home stretch of their 2016-2017 regular seasons with a road trip down to Purdin on Thursday night, with the “Green ‘n Gold” taking a doubleheader sweep against the Linn County Mustangs.

The Lady ‘Cats won the opener 40-26 while the Milan boys broke out of a three-game losing skid with a 53-48 win.  

Other games involving Grand River Conference teams included the Putnam County Midgets winning a pair of games at the Brashear Tournament, and lighting up the scoreboard in the process.  The Lady Midgets rolled past Novinger 91-33, while the Putnam boys scored triple-digits, in a 103-75 victory over Higbee.

North Andrew and Plattsburg split a GRC/KCI doubleheader, with the Lady Tigers victorious 57-31, while the North Andrew boys beat Plattsburg 77-55.  Polo and St. Joseph Christian met in a regular-season GRC crossover match-up in St. Joe, with the Lady Panthers taking the opener 49-37, and the Lions winning the boys contest 45-30.

In Midland Empire Conference girls action, the Chillicothe Lady Hornets continued in their goal of an MEC title with a 54-24 win over Savannah. Whitney Clampitt had 22 points and Hannah Jones 10 in another overwhelming performance for the #2 ranked (MBCA Class 4) squad.  The biggest conference game yet for Chillicothe will be Tuesday night, as the Lady Hornets play at Lafayette.  The winner will be guaranteed of owning a piece of the MEC title in 2016-2017.  

The Benton Lady Cardinals defeated Maryville 57-19 while the Lafayette Fighting Irish beat the Bishop LeBlond girls 61-13.

The semifinals in the CLAA Tournament were played on Thursday night at Tina-Avalon.  The Norborne Lady Pirates beat Hardin-Central 51-42, with the Tina-Avalon Lady Dragons going overtime to swing the upset over #2 seed Southwest Livingston 59-55.  On the boys side, Northwestern held off a strong Brunswick challenge to win 74-69, while the Hardin-Central Bulldogs beat Tina-Avalon 51-33.

Three games will be played tonight (Friday night) at Tina-Avalon, with Hale/Bosworth playing Northwestern in the girls consolation final at 5 o’clock, the Southwest Livingston boys battling Keytesville in the boys consolation final (6:30), and Hardin-Central dueling with Southwest Livingston in the girls third place game at 8 o’clock.

On Saturday night, three more games will finish the 2016-2017 CLAA Tournament, starting with the boys third place game between Tina-Avalon and Brunswick at 5 o’clock, the girls championship game between Norborne and Tina-Avalon at 6:30, and the boys title tilt matching up Northwestern and Hardin-Central at 8 o’clock.