Published: November 05, 2009 11:22 pm      

Rome championship set

By JACK CLARK

jackclark@mvn.net

DIX — After the fourth night of action at the 57th Rome Invitational Basketball Tournament, it would appear that those who do the seeding have been proven to be more or less right about their choices.

The Woodlawn Braves (1) dispatched the Summersville Wildcats (4), 55-38 and the Rome Hornets (2) defeated the Raccoon Blue Devils (3), 56-48 in semifinal action.

Opdyke-Belle Rive’s Roadrunners (6) were a winner over the Bluford Trojans (10), 51-13, in the consolation bracket.

The tournament concludes tonight with three games.

In the second game of the evening on Thursday, Woodlawn’s Chase Phelps led all scorers with 17 points. Jacob Robinson had 15, while D.J. Moore and Ross Owens each added six.

“Everybody here is a good team, so we knew that we had our work cut out for us,” said Braves coach Matt Patterson. “Back-to-back nights, we looked a little sharper tonight. It was good to see us come out and play hard again.”

Summersville was led by Caleb Burns with 13 points. Crayton Turner finished with six and Braden Smith added five.

“We’re learning how to play hard. We’ve just got to learn how to take care of the ball a little bit better,” said Wildcats coach Tommy Hayes. “I’m not disappointed at all. I think that Woodlawn knows that we were in the ballgame. Come the end of the year, we’ll be a different team than we are now.”

In the final game of the evening, Rome was led by Calvin Miley, Dominic Harris and Austin Reed, each of whom scored 11 points.

“Great game. I thought both teams played pretty good,” said Hornet coach John Burkett. “It came down to some free-throw shooting at the end. We hit some free-throws when we needed to. Calvin Miley, a seventh grader, came off of the bench and had an excellent night.”

Raccoon’s Nate King led all scorers with 19 points. Chase Mercer added 14 and Donte Rush had 10.

Opdyke-Belle Rive (6) will now advance to the consolation title game after their win.

“I thought that Bluford played well,” said Roadrunner coach Rick Taaka. “They played good defense, but we got off to a good start early.”

OBR faces Waltonville (5) at 5 p.m. today.

The third place game pits Summersville (4) against Raccoon (3) at 6:30 p.m. That will be followed by the championship game with Woodlawn (1) and Rome (2) tangling at 8 p.m.