The Airline Lady Vikings advanced to the girls championship game of the Doc Edwards Invitational basketball tournament with a 50-34 victory over the Bossier Lady Kats Monday night at Airline.
Airline will face Mansfield at 6:30 Tuesday night at the CenturyLink Center in a rematch of last year’s title game. The Lady Wolverines won that one, 57-56, in overtime. Mansfield defeated Huntington 49-37 in Monday’s other semifinal game.
The Airline Vikings and Parkway Panthers both lost in the boys semifinals. Airline fell to Byrd 89-78 and Parkway lost to Southwood 76-64.
Airline and Parkway face off for third place at the CenturyLink at 4:30. Southwood and Byrd meet in the title game at 8.
The Plain Dealing Lions and Benton Lady Tigers advanced to the boys and girls consolation finals, respectively, with victories Monday. Plain Dealing routed Red River 74-47 and Benton downed Plain Dealing 52-43.
Benton plays Red River, a 62-50 winner over Green Oaks, for the girls consolation title at noon. Plain Dealing faces 2013 champ Richwood, a 76-75 winner over North Webster, in the boys consolation title game at 1:30.
At Airline, Bossier hung with Airline in the first quarter and took a 13-12 lead on a 3-pointer early in the second. But the Lady Vikings closed the half with an 18-2 run and continued to dominate in the third quarter.
Kei McCoy led Airline with 14 points. Camilla Rodriguez and Tyra Kidd scored eight each. Tia Walker, Alysha Crismond and Gabbie Mason all had nine points for Bossier.
The Lady Kats play Huntington for third place at 3.
Ashlyn Jacobs, last year’s tournament MVP, scored 18 points in Mansfield’s win over Huntington.
In the boys semifinals, Byrd took an early lead thanks mainly to Cedric Harris’ four 3-pointers, but Airline stayed within striking distance in the first half. The Vikings trailed by just four when Noah Hildebrand hit a 3-pointer midway through the second quarter.
Byrd extended the lead to 41-34 at the half. The Vikings got as close as five early in the third quarter, but Kory Ashley nailed a 3-pointer to give Byrd a 10-point lead with just under five minutes to play in the third.
Byrd, which got several easy baskets on fastbreaks and shot the ball well beyond the arc, maintained a comfortable lead for the rest of the game.
Montrey Thomas led the Jackets with 26 points. Chad Lott added 16. Robby Dooley led Airline with 23 points with most of those coming in the fourth quarter on drives to the basket. Hilebrand finished with 16. and KJ Bilbo had 10.
The Parkway-Soutthwood game was a tight for most of the way and went into the fourth quarter tied at 50. But the Panthers went cold and the Cowboys pulled away for the victory.
Artavious Lynn led Parkway with 19 points, and William McKnight added 12. Datarrius Hubbard led Southwood with 32.
Brandy Harris led Benton in its consolation semifinal win with 19 points. Gabby Jackson added 12 and LeLe Carper 10.
Chiner Long topped the Plain Dealing boys in their victory over Red River with 20 points. Keldrick Carper chipped in with 16. Isaac Jacobs had 10 points and 10 rebounds.
— Russell Hedges, rhedges@bossierpress.com
