The Chillicothe Hornets met the Kearney Bulldogs in the semifinal of the Savannah Basketball Invitational on Wednesday night. The Chillicothe Hornets were coming off a dramatic 43-41 win over Smithville while Kearney entered off a 70 point win to open the tournament, 92-22 against South Harrison.
Chillicothe opened an early first quarter lead but the Bulldogs final two possessions of the quarter resulted in triples to give Kearney a 15-7 edge. The Hornets hung around into the halftime break, after trailing by 10 early in the 2nd quarter Chillicothe responded behind Sol’jier Allen who had 12 first half points and tied a game high with 19. Kearney’s advantage was 30-22 when both teams hit the locker room.
Chillicothe’s defense limited Kearney from long range in the 2nd half. After the Bulldogs hit 5 from deep in the 1st half, they managed just one three-pointer in the 2nd half. The perimeter defense, along with getting Jaishon White more involved offensively gave the Hornets a 2nd half boost. Chillicothe’s leading scorer entering the game had just 1 point in the first half but Coach Cool and the team made it a point to get White touches on the block. Chillicothe cut the deficit to 4 points inside the final couple minutes following a pair of crucial buckets from Kenyen Gannan. However, Kearney’s clutch free throw shooting prevented the Hornets from ever making it a one possession game late as Kearney prevailed with a 58-51 win.
Chillicothe is now 1-2 on the season and will play in the Savannah tournament 3rd place game on Friday night at 5:30.
Chillicothe 7 22 35 51
Kearney 15 30 42 58
Individual scoring:
Chillicothe – Allen 19, Gannan 10, White 8, Langsten Johnson 7, Cooper Robinson 4, Ashton Baker 2, Howie Donoho 1
Kearney – Drew Wilson 19, Brad Doll 10, Aden Sallee 9, Tre Smith 6, Brock Scott 4, Andrew Way 4, Carter Brock 3, Sal DiBenedetto 1
