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Versailles
standout, junior Kyle Ahrens hits for two of his game high
32 points Friday
against West Liberty Salem. Ahrens suffered a severe
injury Saturday against Anna in the
Tigers 60-39 championship game
victory. CNO Photo by Dylan Knoop
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Versailles wins
tournament title
Tigers star may be lost for season
By George Starks
VERSAILLES- One of the goals of every coach is to win their schools
basketball tournament.
For Versailles coach Scott McEldowney, that goal was met Saturday as
his Tigers rolled to a 60-39 victory over Anna.
The victory was a bitter-sweet one for all Tigers fans.
With 3:29 left in the first half Saturday, junior Kyle Ahrens went for
a loose ball that was going out of bounds.
When Ahrens landed, the next thing that was heard was his screams of
pain.
As of the end of the game, no one had heard what injury the junior
standout had suffered but Ahrens was helped off the floor and was taken
to the hospital by the Versailles Rescue Squad.
After watching Ahrens score 32 Friday against West Liberty Salem, fans
watched in anticipation for Ahrens to net 18 against Anna. That was all
Ahrens needed to reach the 1,000 point mark of his career.
“All I know right now is that when he went up for the ball it seemed
like all his weight came down on one leg,” McEldowney pointed out. “He
looked like he landed awkwardly on his foot to so right now, we really
don’t know anything. He’s a pretty tough kid but right now, we have to
wait and see. If he can come back in a week, a couple of weeks or a
month, we don’t know”
Ahrens finished with 13 on the night, falling five points short of the
coveted milestone.
“I’ve never been more proud of a group of kids in my life than I was
tonight,” said McEldowney. “They scrapped for everything. They rose to
the occasion, stepped up and filled spots. They really wanted to go out
and secure this one for Kyle.”
With Ahrens out of action, it was Damien Richard, Ryan Knapke and Evan
Philpot took the reins and led the Tigers to the tournament title.
“We are pretty deep and very skilled with kids coming off the bench,”
McEldowney admitted. We definitely had to go to the bench tonight. My
bench stepped up and hit some big shots tonight. They got their hands
on loose balls and Damien hit some huge baskets for us. These kids
played hard and were diving on the floor for those loose balls and when
you play like that, good things are going to happen.”
Versailles jumped out to a commanding 8-0 lead early and was looking to
blow the Rockets out quickly.
Anna came to play and trailed by a 20-15 count with one frame in the
books.
With 5:57 left in the half, Versailles had gone on a 7-2 spurt out of
the gate to start the second quarter.
After Anna called a quick timeout, the Tigers offense continued its
onslaught and when Ahrens went down, Versailles had created a large
lead and held a commanding 44-24 advantage at the break.
With their offensive sparkplug out of commission, the Tigers took on a
different look after that.
Through it all, Versailles still held a 21 point lead after three as
the Tigers defense took control, holding the Rockets to just nine
points in the frame while netting only 10 and holding a 54-33 lead.
With defense holding the big lead in the third, it was defense that
kept it that way to the end of the game.
“When you play that hard and are diving on the floor the way we were,
good things are going to happen” said McEldowney. “We played hard and
got a big win.”
Evan Philpot finished the night with 10 hard earned points for the
Tigers.
Something McEldowney was quite pleased with out of his post player.
“Evan was good down there,” said the Tiger coach. “I’ve been preaching
to him about his hard play and tonight he did a nice job. I thought we
did a nice job overall.”
In Fridays action, the Rockets rolled to a whopping 61-49 win over
Miami East while the Tigers blasted West Liberty Salem, 78-47.
In the consolation game Saturday between Miami East and the WLS Tigers,
it was the Vikings that prevailed, 58-47 over WLS.
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Versailles senior Damien Richard was named MVP of the Versailles
Holiday Tournament.
CNO Photo by Dylan Knoop
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The 2013 All-Tournament team are from left to right: Conner Woods (West
Liberty Salem), A.J. Hickman
(Miami East), Damien Richard (Versailles),
Carter Bensman and Josh Albers (Anna). Not Pictured
is Versailles
junior Kyle Ahrens. CNO Photo by Chuck Runner, tigerballonline.net
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