Leyton Teams Place Third In MAC tournament

Leyton’s Warrior Basketball team entered the MAC Tournament as the number three seed and faced off against number six seed Garden County last Tuesday in Dalton in the first round of the MAC Tournament. The Warriors started fast and built a 16-to-3 lead after the first quarter, but then their offense slowed and the Warriors let the Eagles back into the game as Garden County narrowed the lead and went into halftime down 21-to-13. Leyton then put up 19 points in the third quarter to pull away and although the Eagles fought back with a solid fourth quarter, the lead was to big to overcome and Leyton won the first-round game 51-to-38. Freshman Jonathan Kruse led the scoring for Leyton with 16 points, and juniors Scout Gamble and KJ Bush were also in double-figures, scoring 11 and 12 points respectively.

Leyton then matched up against number 2 seed Bayard Thursday night in Bridgeport, but were unable to overcome the Tigers’ strong defense and fell by a final score of 55-to-24. Bush led the Leyton scorers with seven points in the loss. This set up the consolation game between Leyton and Creek Valley, and a tight game was turned by strong second and third quarters by the Warriors where they scored 31 points to the Storm’s 14. Creek Valley had a strong fourth quarter, but it was not enough to cut the deficit, and Leyton earned the 49-to-38 victory and a third-place result at the MAC Tournament.

The No. 4 seed Lady Warriors started the tournament against number five seed Minatare on Monday January 18 in Dalton, and were able to overcome a 19-to-16 halftime deficit with a strong second half to earn a 10 point win, 39-to-29. This moved the Lady Warriors to the semi-finals against number one seed South Platte on Thursday in Bridgeport, and the Lady Blue Knights showed why they were the top seed as they opened up a 7-to-0 lead in the first two minutes of play, dominated the boards and shut down the Lady Warriors’ offense. After building a 37-to-9 halftime lead, South Platte cruised the rest of the way to a 60-to-15 victory and a spot in the Championship game.

The Lady Warriors played in the consolation game in Bridgeport on Saturday against the Garden County Lady Eagles, and opened an eight point lead at the end of the first quarter, and then rode their defense through the second and third quarters to build a 29-to-18 lead going into the fourth quarter. Garden county fought back in the fourth quarter outscoring Leyton 12-to-6, but it wasn’t enough to overcome the lead and Leyton earned the victory 35-to-30 for a third-place finish in the MAC Tournament. The Leyton teams travel to Hemingford on Thursday to face the Bobcats.