It was a very good weekend for both Westran basketball teams as their girls and boys each won titles at the 97th New Franklin Basketball Tournament.
On Friday, Jan. 9, the Hornets shut down host school New Franklin in the girls’ championship game, defeating the Bulldogs, 45-35. Then 18 hours later, the Westran boys followed up with a first-place finish of their own Saturday afternoon, holding off Brunswick, 64-58. With the Westran girls now winning the New Franklin Invitational for three straight seasons, the Hornet boys have earned championships there during four of the past six years.
After both sides started slowly the first four minutes of the game, Westran began to take control midway through the opening period and rarely trailed after that. The Hornets were ahead 17-13 after one quarter and then 33-26 at intermission. Westran spent nearly all afternoon protecting a lead that fluctuated between two and seven points as the Hornets would always respond with a timely basket right after Brunswick began to get real close. The Hornets eventually stretched their advantage to nine in the waning moments before ending the day with a hard-earned, 64-58 decision.
Winning their seventh game in a row, 12-1 Westran had three people in double figures. Cruze Haynes scored 20 points to pace them while Jordan Black added 13 and Tiernan Mooneyham chipped in with 12. Knocking down eight three-pointers and going 14 of 19 at the free throw line went a long way toward providing the Hornets with a path to the victory column. Seeing a five-game winning streak come to an end, Brunswick dropped to 10-2 on the season as Clay Hayward had 21 points and Tae Brown tallied 17.
In the other boys’ final round games played Saturday, Christian Fellowship of Columbia ended up with third place for the week as they led nearly the entire contest before holding off New Franklin, 54-49. The Knights are playing a full MSHSAA basketball schedule for the first time ever as they improved to 8-3 on the year. Jake Davis mustered 17 points while Evan Aslanidas scored 13 and Brett Conklin added 11 for the winning side. Falling to 9-3 overall, New Franklin received 17 points from Caden Schlotzhauer as Noah Hackman contributed 12 of his own.
In contests played in New Franklin’s old gymnasium Saturday, Sturgeon edged past Fayette, 41-39 for consolation honors after Jamestown had stopped Community, 56-38 in the seventh-place matchup.