Celtics in the Culver Classic

DAY 1: Coming from behind, the O'Hara Celtics won their first round game of the 36th Annual Culver's Basketball Classic at Lee's Summit High School 70-65 on January 17. _____Bolstered by nine first half three-pointers, the Lee's Summit Tigers built up a halftime advantage of 43-26. _____ Sam Sealer popped in five of them and Elijah King had two. _____ Eventually the Celtics fell behind by twenty points halfway through the third quarter 52-32, but then the tide turned. ______ The next fifteen points were scored by the O'Hara squad to bring the score to 52-47. ______ The Tigers got their last two three-point baskets within the third quarter, both by Sealer, but the team was held to just 22 points the entire second half of the game. ______ Meanwhile Jevon Lyle who only had two points in the first half of the game, scored three three-pointers in the second half. _____ When O'Hara neutralized the score at 63-63, Daniel Hurtt put in the go-ahead basket with 50 seconds of playing time left in the game.______ Daniel Hurtt with 26 points was the game's top scorer and DJ Jackson scored 20 with Jevon Lyle coming through with 15. ______ For the Tigers, Sam Sealer led with 21 points followed by Skyler Arbuckle with 13, Tyler Smith with 12, and Daniel Vernon with 10. _______ Other first round scores were Raytown South 74 Ruskin 66, Blue Springs South 58 Rockhurst 49, and Lee's Summit North 54 Lee's Summit West 33. _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ Day 2: On January 20, the Celtics lost in the semifinals to the Raytown South Cardinals who were seeded #1 in the tournament. _____ The score was 70-63. _____ The two teams were tied at 15-15 going into the second quarter but the Cardinals pulled ahead by six by halftime 36-30. _____ Only two points separated the evenly matched teams at the end of the third quarter 56-54 and the Celtics took a slim lead shortly into the fourth quarter on DJ Jackson's three-pointer. _____ Then the game was decided by a trio of Cardinals who each scored a three-pointer: Nodie Newton, Tony Draisey, and Carey Hilliard. _____ In the game, the Celtics scoring was well balanced among DJ Jackson with 16, Daniel Hurtt with 14, Josh Rupprecht with 14, and Jevon Lyle with 12. _____ The Cardinals' two top scorers were 23 for Corey Hilliard and 15 for Earl Peterson. ______ Raytown South earned the privilege to meet Lee's Summit North for the tournament championship and O'Hara went on to face Blue Springs South for third place [Lee's Summit North had defeated Blue Springs South 50-42]._____ _____ _____ _____ Day 3: On the following day, O'Hara won the third place trophy winning 67-60 against the Blue Springs South Jaguars. ______ Although the Jaguars opened the game with an 11-3 spurt, the Celtics fought back 8-2 to end the quarter at 13-11 in favor of the Jaguars. _____ During most of the second quarter the Celtics trailed until two baskets in succession by DJ Jackson and Josh Rupprecht lifted O'Hara into the lead at the half 29-26. _____ The Celtics led throughout the remainder of the game. _____ Four three-pointers kept the Jaguars close in the third quarter ending with O'Hara on top by only two points 44-42. _____ The Celtics closed out the fourth quarter with 23 points, fifteen of which were from the free throw line as Shawn Meyer and Wesley Poke both fouled out. _____ DJ Jackson was sent to the line often enough to score 12 of his 23 game points from the foul line in that quarter. _____ Josh Rupprecht had a productive game scoring 21 points and Daniel Hurtt tagged on 10 points. ______ The Jaguars were led by DJ Booker with 20, Drake Patterson with 14, and Darrion Geiger with 11. _____ The tournament championship was won by Raytown South in a 52-47 game with Lee's Summit North.