Published: November 05, 2009 12:02 am      

Woodlawn, host Hornets reach semifinals

Rome Grade School tournament

By JACK CLARK

jackclark@mvn.net

DIX — The third night of the 57th Rome Invitational Tournament ended with wins by Waltonville, Woodlawn and the host school, Rome.

In the first round of the consolation bracket, the Waltonville Spartans defeated the Iuka Pirates, 54-21.

In the evening’s final two contests — both championship quarterfinals — the top-seeded Woodlawn Warriors, playing for the first time in 10 days, were a 57-34 winner over the Wayne City Braves, and Rome’s Hornets, seeded second, defeated the Field Panthers, 67-49.

Jacob Robinson led Woodlawn with 12 points, while Chase Phelps added 11. Ross Owens finished with nine points.

“We had been off for a week-and-a-half and I thought that it looked like it,” said Warrior coach Matt Patterson. “Defensively, I thought that we were pretty good. We wanted to hold them to around 34, 35. We scored 57, but, it was an ugly 57. We made some bad passes, but that was from being in the gym for a week-and-a-half beating up on each other.”

Billy Irwin led all scorers with 15 points for Wayne City. Jimmy Mayberry had six points and Drew Gregory added four.

“Even once we got down, I thought that our kids continued to play hard,” said Braves coach Tony Richardson. “They battled the whole game and that’s all that you can expect. I was pleased with how the kids fought to the very end.”

Ryan Miller led Rome with 12 points. Eli Phillips finished with 11 points and Parker Renaud had nine.

The most anticipated match-up in the tournament thus far did not fail to disappoint the fans in attendance. That point wasn’t lost on the Hornet coaching staff.

“Field played a pretty good game. They were ready when they got here,” said Hornet coach John Burkett. “When Dominic went down, that hurt us a little bit (Harris went out, but returned later) and we didn’t just couldn’t get anything going. But, some of that was the play of Field. They were playing some good defense. Hats off to Don (Johnson), they’re doing a good job over there.”

Logan Karcher led all scorers with 18 points for Field. Thomas Weber netted 16 points. J.J. Wiegel, Ethan McGovern and Corey Simmons each had four points.

“I thought that we came back well after last night (a 56-23 victory over Bluford). I couldn’t be more proud of those boys. They played with heart,” said Panther coach Don Johnson. “Rome is a great basketball team. We stuck with them and we made them work. My boys flipped the switch tonight and they were ready to play. Hats off to Rome. This was a good game.”

The focus now moves to tonight’s games. At 5 p.m. Bluford will match up with Opdyke-Belle Rive in a consolation-bracket game.

That will be followed by Woodlawn and Summersville at 6:30 p.m. Then Rome will oppose Raccoon at approximately 8 o’clock.