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Versailles senior Kyle Ahrens scored 30 points against Miami East
Tuesday after netting 28 against West
Liberty Salem Monday in the 4th
Annual Versailles Holiday Tournament. Ahrens was named MVP of the
tournament after the Tigers dropped a 63-55 loss on the Vikings. CNO
Photos by Dylan Knoop
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Versailles
remains undefeated in annual tournament
By George Starks
VERSAILLES- After knocking West Liberty-Salem off Monday night, 78-42,
in the fourth annual Versailles Holiday Tournament, the Tigers were
once again faced with the task of doing battle with Miami East in the
title game Tuesday.
The Vikings came in with a 6-0 mark and after knocking off Anna, 59-36,
Miami East has aspirations of taking its first championship in the
tournament.
For the fourth straight year, Versailles was able to defend it home
court by posting a 63-55 win over the Vikings.
“I thought we did a lot of really nice things tonight,” said Versailles
head coach Scott McEldowney. “They (Miami East) has a really solid
basketball team. They have some size and some really good guard play so
it was a pretty good match-up.”
In the opening game for the Tigers, senior Kyle Ahrens (Michigan State
bound) hit for 28 points and pulled down 11 rebounds.
Wednesday, Ahrens tacked on another 30 points with five rebounds in the
title game.
In addition, Ahrens was named MVPof the tournament while his younger
brother, Justin and fellow senior, Jace Barga were also named to the
All-Tournament team.
Recording the eight point victory, the Tigers struggled in the early
going.
After taking the early 2-0 lead, Miami East went on a 10-0 run and was
up 14-4 with 3:27 left in the opening eight minutes before McEldowney
took a quick time-out.
Whatever the boss said, it must have worked as Versailles had closed
the gap to a 16-13 count at the end of the quarter.
In the opening frame, the Ahrens brothers had accounted for all 13
points as the two fed off each other.
“They are two very athletic kids and they have committed their lives to
basketball,” said McEldowney. “They spend so much time making
themselves better athletes and better basketball players and it shows
up on the court.”
From the 3:27 mark, the Tigers went on a blistering 21-5 run, making
the Vikings pay for every mistake, building a 33-22 lead at the break.
“I thought we played really well but in the first half we could knocked
a few more shots down,” said McEldowney. “If Brett (McEldowney) could
have hit a couple of shots from outside the line, it would have brought
them out of the triangle in two. Justin done a great job taking the
ball to the hole. I thought they were about to get out of it before
Brett picked up his second foul. I think we handled it pretty well
though. We went to a straight man out of the zone after the time out.”
If winning the tournament wasn’t enough, there was another factor
involved for not only the Tiger and Vikings but also for Anna and WLS.
All four teams are in the same sectional.
“Everyone looks at this but it’s early in the season and anything can
happen,” said McEldowney. “We all have very tough schedules ahead of us
so anything can happen between now and the end of the season.”
Now 6-1, Versailles will host Parkway on January 9, 2015.
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Freshman Justin Ahrens was named to the All Tournament team after
netting 15
Tuesday against the Vikings.
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Senior Jace Barga scored 22 in the Monday night opener against WLS and
was also
named to the All Tournament team.
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