Leyton's Warriors Place Fourth in MAC Tourney

Leyton's Warrior boy's basketball team competed in the Minuteman Athletic Conference (MAC) basketball tournament that was held over the last week, and after defeating South Platte in a two point come-from-behind victory on Jan 15, earned a trip to the semi-finals on Thursday at the Sidney High School Gym.

On Thursday, the Warriors faced the Bayard Tigers in the semi-final round of the MAC Tournament, and Bayard entered the game as a heavy favorite.

The Tigers opened the game with a 14-to-0 run, with Leyton turnovers and the Tiger's defense preventing the Warriors from scoring. Bayard seniors Justin Whitebear, Lane Hargens, and Leo Salazar dominated the action, scoring on quick transitions and using their height to smother the Warrior's inside game.

Leyton managed only one point in the first period off of a free throw.

The Warriors had a much better second quarter, settling in and finding some room to work inside while sophomore Zach Henke connected on his foul shots. Bayard only outscored the Warriors by two in the quarter, but at half their lead 41-to-16 and Leyton had no chance to make a comeback.

The Tigers put up another 23 points in the second half against Leyton's 10, and the Tigers cruised to a comfortable 64-to-26 victory to put them in the championship game on Saturday. Henke led the scoring for Leyton with 11 points in the loss.

On Saturday the Warriors faced the Creek Valley Storm in the consolation game for third place. Creek Valley let their game against Garden County on Thursday slip away from them, and were determined not to let that happen again. Saturday's contest started out slowly, with both teams defenses dominating the action until Creek Valley was able to score on consecutive possessions to take a 12-to-8 lead at the end of the first quarter.

The tide turned in the second, with the Storm opening up their offense with seniors Garrett Sawyer and Sam Grabowski, along with sophomore Oakley Hodges using their size to dominate the inside and score. Sawyer thrilled the crowd with a slam dunk in the period, and the Storm opened up a 34-to-16 lead at the half.

Leyton was able to gain ground in the second half, but the game was out of hand by the time Leyton was able to capitalize on Creek Valley's substitutions in the fourth quarter. Leyton was able to put up 25 points against the Storm's 11, but it was not enough as Creek Valley took the game 59-to-51 and earned third place in the tournament.

Lady Warriors Defeat Potter-Dix

Leyton's Lady Warrior basketball team breezed by Potter-Dix on January 14 to earn a spot in the semi-final round of the Minuteman Athletic Conference (MAC) Tournament, but lost a disappointing game to the Bayard Lady Tigers on Thursday at the Sidney High Gym.

After a fast start by Bayard, Leyton started to score as the Lady Tigers were doing their best to make sure Leyton junior standout Madelyn Watchorn did not have any open looks.

Watchorn was getting fouled on nearly every shot attempt, but was steady at the foul line to keep the score close.

A three point shot by sophomore Ella Draper followed by a Watchorn two and one play left Leyton trailing by three as the period wound down, but Draper got another chance and hit another three pointer to end the half in a 14-14 tie.

The second quarter had both teams battling for points under the boards, but Leyton started to fall behind as their shooting went ice cold. After being fouled on a three point attempt, Draper missed all three of her shots and at 3:28 left in the half, the Lady Warriors found themselves behind 24-to-15. But the Leyton girls battled back, and scored some points to narrow the lead and went into the intermission behind 30-to-22.

The physical battled continued in the third quarter, but Leyton could not consistently capitalize on their good defensive play, and were unable to pick up any ground. The fourth period started with Leyton behind 42-to-33, and Watchorn's shooting went cold. Leyton started to gain ground in the last half of the quarter, with Draper hitting three pointers and cutting the deficit to 47-to-43. But Draper fouled out with 2:21 left, and Leyton's most effective outside scoring threat sat on the bench for the remainder of the game.

Leyton only managed an additional three points in the period, and fell to the Lady Tigers 52-to-46. Watchorn had 18 points and Draper had 17 points in the loss.

On Saturday, the Lady Warriors faced the Minatare Lady Indians in the consolation game, and again had a slow start to the game. After a physical first quarter that had the Lady Warriors up 9-to-8, Leyton's offense put up 11 points while their defense clamped down and smothered the Minatare squad, only allowing three points in the quarter to go into the half up 20-to-11. A big fourth quarter for the Lady Warriors removed all doubt from the outcome, and the Leyton girls took the game and third place in the tournament by a 56-to-35 final score.

Watchorn lit up the Lady Indians for 27 points in the victory.

Leyton faces Minatare again at home on Friday.