Small-school hoops crowns won by Culleoka, Santa Fe

SM-Tn Sports

In a day of big individual efforts, Culleoka’s girls and Santa Fe’s boys claimed Maury County Middle School Small Class tournament titles Saturday at Culleoka.

Auden Slaughter’s chase of the 1,000-point career mark was successful, as the Wildcat eighth-grader scored a game-high 34 points to push his team past Mt. Pleasant 57-33. Slaughter completed his middle school career with 1,010 points.

Santa Fe won the Maury County Middle School boys small-class tournament title, defeating Mt. Pleasant 57-33 Saturday. (Courtesy photo)

Slaughter and Macon Adkison scored nine points each in the opening period as Santa Fe seized a 23-12 lead. The Tigers trailed 42-19 at intermission and never recovered. Adkison added 14 points, including four 3-pointers, for Santa Fe, with Ryan Benderman scoring eight points to lead Mt. Pleasant.

Kendall Reischman scored 14 of her game-high 20 points in the first half Saturday as the host Lady Warriors defeated Mt. Pleasant 32-26 in the girls.

Culleoka won the Maury County Middle School girls small-class tournament title Saturday, defeating Mt. Pleasant 32-26. (Courtesy photo)

Lilly Dodge countered with 19 points for Mt. Pleasant — 14 in the final two quarters, as the Lady Tigers tried to rally from a 20-8 halftime deficit.

The county’s large middle schools – Battle Creek, E.A. Cox, Spring Hill and Whitthorne – opted to not hold their tournament, according to MCPS athletics director Chris Poynter, and the county’s “Final Four” that debuted last year, matching the large-school and small-school finalists, will not take place.

Santa Fe boys 57, Mt. Pleasant 33

MP 12 7 10 4 — 33
SF 23 19 13 2 – 57

Mt. Pleasant (33) – Jayden McClure 7, Ryan Benderman 8, Knox Brooks 3, J.P. Easterling 6, Hunter Holt 7, JoJo Robertson 2

Santa Fe (57) – Macon Adkison 14, Andrew Graves 5, Kaleb Hazlett 2, Colby Adams 2, Auden Slaughter 34

3-pointers – Mt. Pleasant 3 (Benderman, Brooks, Holt), Santa Fe 6 (Adkison 4, Graves, Slaughter)

Culleoka girls 32, Mt. Pleasant 26

M 4 4 8 10 — 26
C 10 10 4 8 — 32

Mt. Pleasant (26) – Lilly Dodge 19, Addison Sensat 4, Ashley Turner 3

Culleoka (32) – Andee Kelly 10, Kendall Reischman 20, Izzy Hargrove 2

3-pointers – none

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