Published: January 06, 2009 03:38 pm      

Alex boys lose in 1st round; Ninnekah rolls

By CHUCK LARSEN

Sports Editor

ALEX – Day one of this year’s Longhorn Classic is in the books, with Ninnekah sweeping Maysville in both first-rounders and the home-school OKC Knights beating Alex’s boys by 21 in the late game. (There were only three games scheduled Monday due to the Lady Knights drawing a first-round bye.)

BOYS: NINNEKAH 55, MAYSVILLE 50

Ninnekah (7-5) picked up their sixth win in a row handing Maysville (2-7) their sixth loss in a row. Eric Jones’ six first-quarter points helped the Owls to an early cushion and Maysville was playing catch-up all game.

Ninnekah led 17-13 after one and used a 9-2 run to open the second quarter and extend to 30-22 at the half. They closed out the third quarter up 43-34 and had to hold of a furious rally in the closing minutes as Maysville picked things up.

Jones finished with fourteen points for Ninnekah, one of three Owl players in double figures. Tanner Smith finished with eleven and Corey Williams had ten, Chad McLemore had eight, Jerren Berry added seven and Zach Turpin had five.

Jones, Berry and Williams each had eight rebounds and McLemore had five. Berry had five assists and he and Smith had four steals each.

Dalton Hunter had a game-high twenty for the Warriors and Blaine Cooper had ten.

GIRLS: NINNEKAH 78, MAYSVILLE 19

The girls’ game was a mismatch from the opening tip. No. 13 Ninnekah (11-1) was all over winless Maysville, forcing 18 first-half turnovers and eleven more in the second half even as they backed off the defensive pressure.

The Owls jumped out to a 23-2 first quarter lead and were up 42-8 at half-time.

Madison Gilham scored the only field goal of the first quarter with four minutes left and all six Warrior points in the second quarter came from the free throw line.

Shelby Sharber scored twice and Kortney Holbert scored once in the third quarter and the rest of the points came again from the stripe.

Owl center Annesha Kirk had a huge game, finishing with 30 points, 17 rebounds and five blocks before coming out early in the fourth quarter. Amber Chaney finished with 24 points and five steals and Paige Allen added twelve points and five steals. Shayla Goodson finished with five points. Chelsea Johnson had three and Skyla Fisher had two but the pair had seven rebounds each.

Holbert and Gilham each had seven points for Maysville and Sharber had five.

BOYS: KNIGHTS 52, ALEX 31

Trent Daniels had 19 points and Andy Bollinger added eleven as the home-school Knights (10-4) jumped out to a ten-point first quarter lead and kept building on it for the easy win. The Longhorns (4-6) never could get on track or into any kind of rhythm and their shots just didn’t fall.

Alex only scored six points in both the first and second quarters and found themselves facing a 27-12 half-time deficit. Wayne Heffington connected with his first three in the third quarter and Jake Johnson and Travis Helm each had three points to stay even but Bollinger scored five in the fourth and OKC outscored the Horns 15-10 for the win.

Helm led with eight points, Johnson and Brandon Carnes each had six, Steven Brooksher had four, Heffington finished with three and Sean Landrum had two.

On the boys’ side, Alex and Maysville will play at 3 p.m. Thursday and Ninnekah and the Knights play in one winners’ bracket semifinal Friday at 5:45.

Ninnekah’s girls get the winner of today’s Alex/Stratford game Friday night at 7 p.m. and Maysville’s girls get the loser Thursday at 4:15.