Little Milligan, Central and Unaka advance to final in small school brackets

Published 11:05 pm Friday, January 21, 2022

By Austin Alexander

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BY AUSTIN ALEXANDER
STAR CORRESPONDENT
JOHNSON CITY -The small school’s tournament kicked off on Thursday night with four semi-finals slated in succession at Central Elementary.  After the dust settled, Unaka made the final of both the boys and girls championships to square off with Little Milligan and Central respectively.
The first game of the night didn’t get underway as expected with Keenburg’s girls forfeiting their game against top-seed and host Central, automatically advancing them into the final.
With one ticket already punched it was time for the second semifinal of Unaka and Little Milligan. The game was an offensive struggle for both teams as the bucket seemed to have a lid on it. The real difference-maker was Unaka’s Emma Douglas who finished with a game-high 15 points. Rebekah Lloyd chipped in for the Rangers with five while Autumn Harrison added another bucket.
Little Milligan fell behind early and couldn’t find the points to climb back in. Hannah Baird had three points with, Serinity Harper, Katie Montgomery, Baleigh Matthews, Abbie Richardson and Savannah Greene all adding points as well. The game ended 22-11.
In boy’s action, Little Milligan played Central in semi-final number one. Unfortunately for the hosts, the number one-seed Little Milligan was very overpowering.
Bryce Fagan led the way with 17 for the high-powered Buffaloes. Tuff Robinson chipped in another 10 with Tommy Needham’s six points rounding out the top three scorers for Little Milligan. Central never quit, with Carter Cornett scoring 17 and leading the way. Noah Hart added eight more for Central but Little Milligan reigned victorious 51-35.
The final match-up of the night was Unaka taking on the Keenburg boys. What seemed to be another mismatch proved to be true as Unaka was on fire from the opening tip propelling then to victory.
Sully Perkins led the way for Unaka with 21 points for the Rangers. Aiden Walsh, Austin Lambert and Jacob Wilson each added eight, seven and six respectively to drop a total of 53 points for Unaka on the night.
Robert Greene led the way for Keenburg with nine points while Austin Tinsley added seven and Antonio Mireks added eight more but it wasn’t enough as they fell by a final of 53-31.

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