Ellender wins MidSouth tourney

For the second weekend in a row, the Ellender Patriots won an area tournament—this time playing the role of ungracious hosts as they defeated Westgate 87-73 in the championship game of the MidSouth Bank Classic.

The win kept the Patriot’s perfect season alive, as they improved to 16-0 on the season.

The Patriots used a run that stretched between the first and second quarters to create distance between itself and Westgate. With the score 12-11, the Patriots went on a 5-0 run to make it 17-11.

Less than two minutes into the second quarter Ellender led 32-18, a lead it never relinquished. Ellender head coach Scott Gauthreaux said the early run played a big role in the Patriots win, as it allowed his team to withstand later Westgate runs.

“Perfect execution is what got us the big lead early,” he said. “I told the guys before, you’ve got to withstand their runs, because they’re the type of team just like us—they’re going to go on a 10-0 run at some points. We withstood their runs. They got it close a couple of time, but we kept expanding.”

One of the Westgate runs that Gauthreaux referred to occurred midway through the third quarter.

The second half started with the Tigers in a 47-31 hole. Throughout the quarter they rallied to cut the lead to eight, 54-46, on an Akimo Hypolite lay up.

Hypolite finished with a game-high 31 points.

With Westgate appearing the have the momentum, Ellender’s players did what Gauthreaux asked them to do—withstand a run.

The Patriots finished the third quarter on an 11-0 run to take a commanding 65-46 lead into the fourth quarter.

Walter Jones keyed Ellender’s quarter-ending run with five points. He finished the game with 14 points—one of five Patriots players scoring in double figures.

Westgate coach Oliver Winston said he was proud of his team’s ability to close the gap during the third quarter. “We did a good job of getting the game back within range,” said Winston. “But we weren’t able to play good enough defense to get critical stops. We allowed them to have spurts, and when you allow a team like that to have spurts its really hard to beat them.”

Winston added that his team’s effort was not enough. “Great effort is a good thing,” explained Winston, “but you have to have great effort with a purpose, and there were times during the course of the game we didn’t have a purpose.”

For the most part, the teams traded baskets throughout the fourth quarter, although Ellender built an 81-61 lead, it’s biggest, with 3:14 left in the quarter. “We did a great job in the fourth quarter of taking care of the basketball,” said Gauthreaux. “I wanted to quit gambling on defense. Once we quit gambling, we were able to contain them and finish it off. It got to the point where we’re exchanging baskets, but as long as we’re exchanging baskets with them, they weren’t catching up with us.”

Sterling Jones led Ellender with 27 points. Chris Duthu and Bruce Harding added 13, while Jaquincy Cross put in 12.

For Westgate, Jamal Spence had 13 points.