Appleton City Tournament

Miami vs Rich Hill

 

The Rich Hill Tigers started off the Appleton City Tournament on Tuesday night against the Miami Eagles. This would be the second meeting of the year between these two teams with Rich Hill winning the first game at Miami in early December. The margin of victory was eleven. The Tigers came into this tournament game on a two game skid, hoping to turn things around. The Tigers had been seeded #2 and the Eagles #5. The tourney had to be alter a little due to the quarantine of a couple of teams.

 

In the early going the Tigers showed that they came ready to play and jumped to an early  11-4 lead . After that point Rich Hill’s offense turned cold and the defense let down and saw the Eagles storming back to take a lead after the end of the first 13-12. In the second quarter the Tigers offense was still stalled and the defensive let down continued allowing Miami to build their lead. In the second frame the Tigers put the Eagles on the free throw line several times and Miami made it count going 8/8. At the half the Tigers found themselves in a double digit deficit trailing 19-29. As the second half commenced the Eagles took the ball to their end of the court and preceded to run offense for the first two minutes before taking a shoot. After a timeout by Coach Moles, Rich Hill turned up the defensive pressure causing several turnovers by the Eagles. By the end of the third quarter the Tigers still found themselves down by eight points with the score of 27-35. The final quarter the Tigers finally found a way to start turning things around. The pressure defense finally was able to convert turnovers into points. It was a slow process but as the Tigers kept clawing away and the Eagles lead started to evaporate. The Tigers kept attacking the basket and making their way to the charity stripe making 9/10 for the fourth quarter. As Rich Hill kept getting closer it seemed they missed several chip shots but they never gave up. In the end the Tigers press and Miami’s foul trouble led to a Rich Hill victory on this night. The Tigers held the Eagles to just 12 points in the second half and the final score was Rich Hill 46-41.  The Tigers improved their record to 4-7 for the season and will meet Appleton City on Thursday night at 7:15 for the right to play for the tournament championship on Saturday night.

Coach Moles said he felt lucky to come away with a victory but gave credit to the effort the team made to come back and win in this game.

Scoring for the Tigers was Magal Case with 23 points, Clifton Bridgewater 8, Bryce Yohe  6, Adrien King 4, Lucas Harwood 3 and Blake Laning 2. Magal Case led the team in rebounding with 10.

The Eagles were led in scoring by Dusenberry with 21points