Sweetwater makes finals of Catclaw tourney

By MARK WILSON / Staff Writer

Coaches Kirby and Ken Chandler will have to wait for another day to break their 1-1 brotherly tie.

Ken Chandler's Sweetwater boys charged into today's championship game of the Wylie Lions Club Catclaw Invitational basketball tournament with a 79-62 victory over Ballinger Saturday.

The Wylie boys, coached by Chandler's younger brother, Kirby, fell to Whitehouse Friday night in the other semifinal game at the Wylie High School Gym, 63-48.

The Chandler brothers have faced each other as coaches twice, with each posting one win. But Class 4A Whitehouse made sure the tie-breaking game between the two would be delayed by sticking with its methodical style of play that has helped the Wildcats win the tournament three of the past four years.

Sweetwater (7-5) and Whitehouse (11-1) will square off for the title starting at 8 tonight.

In today's boys third place game, Wylie (7-6) and Ballinger (8-4) - two members of District 6-3A - will meet, at 3:30 p.m.

The five girls teams are playing a round robin format, and four games are scheduled today starting at 9:30 a.m. The team with the best overall record for the three-day tournament will be the champion.

Mark Powell paced the Wylie boys against Whitehouse with 20 points, and Grant Gregg tossed in eight points. Lance Evans led the Wildcats with 17 points, and Chad Nix and Steven Gonzales added 11 each.

Whitehouse, using its patient offense to spread the floor and wait for the right shot, never trailed and led by as many 19 (61-42) with 2:20 left in the game.

"They're a real good ball control basketball team," said Kirby Chandler, who is three years younger than his brother. "If they get a lead, they make you do some things with your defense &emdash; make you extend it and gamble. Their kids are very fundamental, which allows them to take advantage of your defense."

Stephanie Anders pumped in a career-high 30 points in Wylie's 67-41 win over Haskell Friday night. The Lady Bulldogs are now 2-1 in the five-team girls round robin, and they have one game remaining, today at 6:30 p.m.

Goldthwaite and Hawley are 2-0 and have two games left entering today's four scheduled girls matchups. Haskell is 0-3 and Aspermont is 0-2.

"I thought we came out and hit some shots, to start with," Wylie girls coach Randy Courtney said. "But we were getting those shots because of execution in our offense."

Anders, who leads Wylie in scoring this season, was scoreless in a 57-44 loss to Goldthwaite to open the tournament on Thursday.

"I guess you might say she was in the zone tonight," said Courtney, whose team led by 10 (34-24) at halftime but extended the margin to 28 with 37 seconds to go in the game. "I think we got a lot of confidence out of this game. We needed a shot of confidence."

Anders missed her only chance at the three throw line, but sank six 3-point buckets. Wylie's Carrie Naylor added eight points. Haskell's top scorer was Shayne McKenzie, with 14.

Haskell's boys were ahead Aspermont 32-16 at halftime, with Casey Burgess scoring 12 of his 16 points. Aspermont picked up 10 points from Urvesh Patel.

Robert Reed led the Sweetwater boys in the win over Ballinger with 23 points and Derrick Franklin added 14.

The Mustangs, who took third in the Plainview tournament earlier this season, are seeking for their first Catclaw title under Ken Chandler.

Sweetwater led 18-13 at the end of the first quarter, but erupted for 26 points in the second quarter for a 44-24 halftime lead.

The Mustangs were up by as many as 32 points (56-24) by the five-minute mark in the third quarter, but the stubborn Bearcats began to chip away at the deficit with the long-range sharpshooting of Douglas Ruppert.

Ruppert scored three points on a single field goal in the first half, but ended up with 24 for the game after hitting five more 3-point buckets. The Bearcats kept up its hot second-half perimeter shooting and finally cut the lead to 11 (65-54). Jason Battle, who finished with 15 points, capped a 13-0 Ballinger run with 4:24 left in the game on a field goal.

The Mustangs were able to stabilize things, and pushed their lead to as many as 19 points with just over a minute to play.

"Ballinger's always a good, scrappy team that's not ever going to quit," The Sweetwater coach said. "I thought we rebounded well early, and got out and ran the break good. We needed to play good to win, and luckily we did."

In the boys consolation semifinals, Hawley defeated Goldthwaite 49-38, and Haskell was a 60-31 winner over Aspermont. Hawley and Haskell will tangle at 2 p.m. today for the consolation title. Goldthwaite will take on Aspermont at 12:30 p.m.

In Friday's other girls games, Goldthwaite beat Haskell, 45-30, and Hawley sailed past Aspermont, 73-29.

The Goldthwaite girls, who jumped out to a 17-5 lead in the first quarter, got 13 points from Kim Geeslin. Haskell was led by Betsy Coleman with 16.

The Hawley girls took a commanding 17-0 lead at the start of their game against Aspermont, and were on top 45-17 at halftime.

Amanda Cobb was the leading scorer for Hawley with 20 points, and Julie Murphy added 16.