Whitehouse wins boys title, Hawley girls in Catclaw tourney

By MARK WILSON / Staff Writer

The Whitehouse Wildcats are strong on both style and substance, and that combination yielded another title in the 15th annual Wylie Lions Club Catclaw Invitational basketball tournament.

Whitehouse was outshot in overall field goals made (18-14), but all but two by the Wildcats were from 3-point range as they held off Sweetwater for a 45-43 triumph in the championship game Saturday at the Wylie High School Gym. It marks the fourth time in the last five years the Wildcats have won the Catclaw title.

Hawley won the girls title, going through its four games in the five-team round robin format without a loss. Goldthwaite went 3-1 for second place and Wylie, 2-2, took third.

Lance Evans, who hit six 3-pointers and scored 20 points against Sweetwater, was named the Most Valuable Player in the boys division. The other four all-tournament players were Sweetwater's Robert Reed and Shedrick Williams, Michael Wright of Whitehouse, and Jason Battle of Ballinger. There was no all-tournament team for the girls.

Whitehouse (12-1) used stout defense to limit Sweetwater to four points in the first quarter, and five in the final period.

The game was an interesting clash in styles, matching the deliberate offense of the Wildcats against the flashy, quick athletic game of coach Ken Chandler's Mustangs (7-6).

"They executed and shot the ball much better than we did," said Chandler, who got 12 points from Shedrick Williams and 11 from Robert Reed. "They just beat us."

Whitehouse coach Wally Dawkins said, "It's an interesting contrast in styles. They're athletic and quick. We have to play smart and try to limit our turnovers.

"They're a well-coached team, and at the same time, very athletic. That makes it very tough. We decided we were going to make them beat us with the 3-pointer. Fortunately, they didn't hit the 3-point shot as well as they're capable of shooting."

The lead changed twice in the first half, and Sweetwater was on top 27-23 at halftime. Whitehouse trailed by six (32-26) at the 5:22 mark in the third quarter, but came back to tie it, 40-all, with 3:04 left in the game.

After three more lead changes in just over a minute, Whitehouse grabbed the lead for good, at 44-43, with 1:50 remaining. The Mustangs had a chance to tie it with just over one second left, but Jason Blueford missed the first shot of a one-and-one free throw, and the ball went off a Sweetwater player out of bounds.

In the final girls game Saturday, the Lady Bearcats outscored Wylie 10-6 in overtime for a 52-48 victory that clinched the trophy.

If Wylie could have pulled out the win to go 3-1 along with Hawley and Goldthwaite, the Goldthwaite girls would have won it. Because of the tie- breaker (total points allowed), the only way the Wylie girls could have won the title was to win Saturday and hold Hawley to no more than 19 points.

Earlier in the day, the Lady Bearcats had nipped Goldthwaite, 42-41, as Tiffany McCarty scored 16 points.

"I was proud of our kids for hanging tough," Hawley girls coach Gary Womack said. "We were real fatigued, mentally and physically, and made a lot of mistakes. The kids hung tough and never folded."

"We played three games today - we played that one, too," joked Goldthwaite girls coach Wayne Johnson after watching the overtime game. "Hawley earned it. They played two tough games today."

The Wylie girls were facing a 16-point deficit (23-7) by the 6:18 mark in the second quarter. But the Lady Bulldogs gave up just four points in the second quarter, and outscored the Lady Bearcats 26-19 in the second half to force the overtime.

Hawley's Amanda Cobb scored 14 points, Julie Murphy had 11 and Robyn Vinson came off the bench to score 10.

Meredith Ripley led Wylie with 17 points and Stephanie Anders scored 15.

The Ballinger boys (9-4) earned third place with a 66-60 victory over Wylie (7-7), in a matchup of two District 6-3A teams. Jason Battle and Daron Switzer dropped in 22 points apiece in the win.

Grant Gregg had 25 points to pace the Wylie boys, and Mark Powell added 16.

The Bulldogs took the lead, at 13-12, with 3:12 to go in the opening quarter. But after Ballinger went back on top, 17-15, on a 3-point bucket by Douglas Ruppert, the Bearcats never trailed again.

The Bulldogs were within two points (44-4) early in the fourth quarter, but Ballinger pulled away with a 5-0 run.

"We got a pretty good rotation in, better than the last two days," Ballinger coach Robert Buxkemper said. "We had good bench support. We hit some pressure free throws at the end, and got a couple of critical rebounds in the last minute."

In the boys consolation final, Haskell topped Hawley, 70-62.

Matthew McCord was the top scorer for the Indians with 26 points, including 10 in the fourth quarter. Jason Briles chipped in 18 and Casey Burgess had 14.

Hawley's top scorer was Casey Chittum, with 21 points.

The Indians trailed 33-31 at halftime, but outscored Hawley 19-11 in the third quarter.