By Staff

            GOESSEL – Friday in the second round of games for the Little River and Elyria Christian boys at the Goessel Bluebird Classic, the Eagles took an early lead and hung on to beat the Redskins by five at 51-46.

            The Elyria boys were scheduled to play Canton/Galva for the tournament championship game on Saturday.

            “We knew this would be a physical contest against a strong Little River squad,” said Eagle head coach Zach Goodrich. “We got just that, but I was very pleased with how our guys responded overall.”

            Elyria took an early nine-point, 13-4 lead by the end of the first quarter and outscored the Redskins by two in the second stanza to increase their advantage to 11 at 29-18 going into the halftime break.

            Little River chipped a pair of points off the lead in the third quarter, but the Eagles hung on in the fourth quarter to take home the final five-point, 51-46 victory.

            One player Elyria seemed to have trouble stopping was the Redskins Braxton Lafferty as he led Little River in scoring with a whopping 29 points while just missing a double-double in grabbing nine rebounds.

            Dalton Mantz and Kayston Cox combined for 11 rebounds for Little River while Logan Renken recorded three blocked shots.

            For the Eagles, Ry Romero and Johnny Unruh led the scoring with 19 and 16 points, respectively. Romero connected on four three-pointers and led the team in both rebounds and steals with six each.

            Coach Goodrich concluded his post-game reflections by noting, “One emphasis of our team this year is to not live and die by the three pointers. While we are very good three-point shooters, we are focusing on scoring other ways too. I thought tonight was a good test of that and I was pleased that we took 15 two-pointers along with getting to the free throw line nineteen times. Both Ty (Romero) and Johnny (Unruh) shot the ball incredibly well for us in the game, combining to het six three-pointers.”

LITTLE RIVER REDSKINS vs. ELYRIA CHRISTIAN EAGLES at Goessel Bluebird Classic

SCORING: LITTLE RIVER 4-14-9-19=46; ELYRIA CHRISTIAN 13-16-7-15=51.

TEAM STATS: LITTLE RIVER = 2-PT FGs – 12/29; 3-PTs – 4/15; FTs – 10/14; AST – 9; REBs – 27; TO – 15; STLs – 9; BLKs – 3; FLs – 15. ELYRIA CHRISTIAN = 2-PT FGs – 7/15; 3-PTs – 8/21; FTs – 13/19; AST – 11; REBs – 27; TO – 18; STLs – 12; BLKs – 2; FLs – 17.

LITTLE RIVER REDSKIN INDIVIDUAL STAT LEADERS:

Scoring: Braxton Lafferty – 29; Dalton Mantz – 4; Andrew Smith – 4; Logan Renken – 3; Kayston Cox – 3; Rylan Konen – 3.

3-Pointers Made: Lafferty – 2; Renken, Cox – 1.

Assists: Lafferty, Mantz, Renken – 2; cox – 1.

Rebounds: Lafferty – 9; Mantz – 6; Cox – 5; Renken – 3.

Steals: Konen, Treyton Olander, Mantz – 2; Lafferty – 1.

Blocked Shots: Renken – 3.

ELYRIA CHRISTIAN EAGLE INDIVIDUAL STAT LEADERS:

Scoring: Ty Romero – 19; Johnny Unruh – 16; James Schott – 6; Alex Robertson – 4; Landon Schneider – 3; Caleb Laney – 3.

3-Pointers Made: Romero – 4; Unruh – 2; Robertson, Laney – 1.

Assists: Unruh, Laney – 3; Romero – 2; Schott, Roberson, Schneider – 1.

Rebounds: Romero – 6; Schneider – 5; Schott – 4; Laney, Unruh – 3.

Steals: Romero – 6; Unruh – 3.

Blocked Shots: Romero, Robertson – 1.

(The Staff covering McPherson County Activities can be reached by email at crossdovewriter@gmail.com)