The No. 1 Keith Bears were able to neutralize the No. 2 Dallas County Hornets’ height advantage late into the third, but the Hornets capitalized off of Keith’s mistakes to win 57-42 in the championship game of the Dallas County Christmas Tournament on Saturday at Wallace.

Willie Moore, head boys basketball coach of Dallas County (12-2, ranked No. 2 in Class 4A), said the Hornets were able to break the close game open in the fourth thanks to the Bears getting into foul trouble first.

“They missed a couple shots and we were able to get a couple baskets and extend the lead to seven and went to nine. Then they came out and played us a little bit,” Moore said. “We were able to cash in on free throws in a free-throw contest between two pretty good teams.”

The Hornets led 26-21 at the break, as Keith (9-5, ranked No.1 in Class 1A) had early success keeping Dallas County’s 6’8 center William Lee from hurting them in the paint and forcing the Hornets into taking outside shots.

The Bears fought back to cut the lead to three at 30-27 early in the third.

Keith’s Rodney Ellis scored on a layup and hit the free throw after being fouled in the act to tie the game at 30-30 with 2:04 left in the third quarter.

But Markell Harris hit a pair of free throws and Jerrod Moorer scored on a fast break layup to help the Hornets take a 36-31 lead into the fourth quarter.

The Bears were in reach, but were in foul trouble entering the fourth, as the Hornets were in the bonus.

Dallas County scored 11 points from the free throw line alone in the fourth, as they were able to pull away for the win.

Tommy Tisdale, head boys basketball coach of Keith, said the Bears made some key mistakes, but did a good job overall of slowing down Lee and forcing the Hornets into tough shots.

“We made a couple of mental mistakes and I had some guys that got in early foul trouble, so we kind of had to abandon the original game plan and make an adjustment that I thought played in our advantage for a while,” Tisdale said. “We got lax a couple of times and made some youthful mistakes, but overall I thought my guys did a good job. They executed 75-80 percent of what I asked them. They went 100 percent until the end of the game.”

Harris led Dallas County with 21 points, while Lee had 12 points, with half of those points coming from the free throw line.

Ellis led Keith with 13 points while A.J. Simmons had 7 points for the Bears.

 

Wilcox 66, Southside 63 (OT)

A 3-pointer by Wilcox Central’s Makarius Chapman sent the game to overtime and the No. 1 Jaguars went on to defeat the No. 5 Southside Panthers 66-63 in the third-place game of the Dallas County Christmas Tournament on Saturday.

Mark Dukes, head boys basketball coach of Wilcox Central (10-2, ranked No. 1 in Class 4A), said his team just didn’t stop fighting.

“First of all, I’m very proud of them. My guys, they had the ability to see it through. We recite a poem before every game called ‘See It Through’ by Edgar A. Guest, and they showed perseverance, never gave up and we were able to make plays late in the ball game,” Dukes said.

Southside (10-4, ranked No. 5 in Class 3A) led 57-54 with 28 seconds left, but Chapman buried a 3-pointer to tie the game at 57-57 with nine seconds left and went to the line after he was fouled.

Chapman missed the potential winning free throw and the Panthers got possession, but Jeffery Mack’s half-court heave bounced off the backboard as time expired to send the game to overtime.

Freddie Smith scored 5 points in the overtime period and Chapman hit another three that helped put Wilcox ahead 66-63 with less than a minute on the clock.

Southside ran a play and found a wide-open Je’von Hall in the corner, but his potential tying 3-pointer rimmed out as time expired.

Cedric Brown, head boys basketball coach of Southside, said the Panthers got the shot they wanted.

“We were down three and needed a tying basket, and we knew they were pretty much going to not let [Sammarkus] Jones touch it,” Brown said, “but we got a shot in the corner, got the shot that we wanted, but it rimmed out on us. That’s just how the ball bounced.”

Smith led Wilcox with 21 points, while Mack had 20 points for Southside.

The boys all-tournament team included Jones and Mack of Southside, Roman and Freddie Smith of Wilcox, Ellis and Walton Young of Keith, Lee and Keyonis Phillips of Dallas County. Markell Harris of Dallas County was the tournament most valuable player.