A full week of games led the Christian Fellowship Eagles into Saturday’s 4th District Tournament, with nice wins over Livingston Central and St. Mary, which Head Coach Tyler Ryan said could have attributed to some tired legs.
“I know they were tired”, Ryan said of coming off of two full weeks of games due to rescheduling. “It was very encouraging to finish the regular season the way we did. To go to St. Mary…that’s not an easy place to win and to beat Livingston after they beat us the week before. So I was extremely proud.”
The Eagles lost twice during the regular season to Murray by scores of 80-53 and 70-57 and a Tiger team looking to be peaking at just the right time, beat CFS 81-42 in Saturday’s semi-final.
Off to a 21-3 start behind four 3-pointers by junior Grant Whitaker, the Tigers were on form and closed out the first quarter on a 27-5 lead.
Luke Grigg scored for CFS to open the second quarter but it was followed up by a 3-pointer and slam from Murray’s Trey Boggess to give the Tigers a 32-8 lead. The Eagles picked it up offensively with 17 points in the quarter but Murray dropped in four more threes that helped fuel a 57-22 halftime lead.
Isaac Hovekamp scored six of his 13 points in the game in the third quarter but the Murray lead grew to 41 points and they finished out the night with a 39-point win and trip to the 4th District Championship game against cross-town rival Calloway County.
“Murray is just so good with so many weapons”, said Ryan, “I think Murray is going to make some noise and for us to play against the best of the best, that’s what you want to do. We’re not in a favorable district by any means. A school our size, it’s going to be rare we can actually compete for winning the district tournament but there might be a game or two we can steal and that’s what makes you better.”
Ryan said that games like Saturday’s against really good district teams is what makes his team better against the smaller schools that they are supposed to be competitive against. CFS re-entered the 4th District this season for the first time in 17 years.
Hovekamp led CFS in scoring with 13 points followed by junior Andrew Dunning with 11. Boggess and Whitaker both scored 16 to lead Murray.
The Eagles finish with a record of 12-18.
CFS 5 17 9 11 – 42
Murray 27 30 15 9 – 81
CFS: Hovekamp 13, Dunning 12, E. Grigg 6, L. Grigg 4, S. Grigg 3, Space 2, Gaston 2
Murray: Boggess 16, Whitaker 16, English 10, Gill 8, Grant 7, Watson 6, Wilson 5, Carman 3, Wyatt 3, May 3, Jones 2, Rosa 2
CFS (12-18): FG 15/37, 3 PT 2/17 (E. Grigg, S. Grigg), FT 10/16 (Dunning 6/8, Hovekamp 3/4), REB 24 (Dunning 8) AST 4, TO 20, PF 14
Murray (22-5): FG 32/51, 3 PT 11/23 (Whitaker 4, Boggess 2, Watson 2), FT 6/12, REB 23, AST 21, TO 8, PF 16
