Feb. 9, 2009
Union Hill 7th Grade Captures Own Tourney
The Union Hill Bearcats invited seven other teams to its 7th Grade Bearcat Classic last weekend in Grass Valley and putting it bluntly, the Bearcats were rather rude to their guests.
Playing three strong games, the Bearcats rolled through the opposition with relatively little opposition to keep the first place trophy in their own trophy case.
Capping what Union Hill head coach Ryan Ellis called a weekend in which his team played “with a lot of intensity”, the Bearcats opened the tourney with a 51-31 win over Newcastle; defeated Nevada County Athletic League rival Seven Hills in the semi-finals, 39-18; and then blew past Loomis, 59-29, in a lopsided championship game result.
Now 13-4 overall on the season, Union Hill received 13 points from Jake Berger, 10 points, six rebounds and four blocks from Kyle McCombs and 10 points and three steals from Collin Echols in the team’s opening round win over Newcastle.
Tel Newman also contributed four points and four rebounds in the UH triumph where the ‘Cats jumped out to an early big lead and cruised to the victory.
In the semi’s, the ‘Cats turned the tables on NCAL foe Seven Hills which had taken a league contest over UH on Thursday.
In Saturday’s UH-SH tourney match-up, Berger, Echols and Nathan Selleck combined efforts on offense and defense to stymie the Raiders and help lead the way to a decisive 39-18 win.
Finally, in the finals, the Bearcats capped their big weekend by following a prolific 1-2 effort from Berger and Logan Gardner to race past Loomis.
Berger, hounding Loomis’ guards from baseline-to-baseline, scored 19 points and came up with eight steals for the winners who built a big 38-17 lead by halftime.
Gardner, meanwhile, also came up huge with 15 points while McCombs and Beau DePois helped on the inside with the rebounding chores.
Ellis also praised the work of Austin Latter and Chris Milhous has being instrumental in the Bearcats’ winning effort.
In other tourney results, Forest Lake Christian used a halfcourt shot to force overtime before eventually downing Magnolia in the consolation game. Elsewhere, Gilmore defeated Newcastle in a consolation game for its first win of the season and Foresthill topped Seven Hills in the third place game.