By Mike Hutchens, UC Schools Communications Director
Day 2 of the 56th annual Martin Lions Club Christmas Tournament was much better than Day 1 for the Union City High School boys’ basketball team.
The UC boys bounced back Tuesday from a lopsided opening round loss to Bolivar, routing West Carroll 66-42.
Ben McMillan scored the Tornadoes’ first 14 points and UC (4-5) built a commanding 21-point advantage after one quarter while going on to lead by as many as 31 points before halftime.
The win sends the Purple and Gold into Wednesday’s fifth-place game against Obion County Central, to be played at Martin Middle School at 2:30 p.m. The Rebels edged Bradford 56-53 after losing a shutout to Peabody in their opening round game.
Unfortunately, the Union City girls couldn’t duplicate the feat of their boy counterparts at the Dot Foods holiday event in Dyersburg, dropping a 41-35 decision to Munford Tuesday.
The Lady Cougars made 9-of-10 foul shots in the fourth quarter to hold off UC, which had crept to within a single point twice in the final two minutes on buckets by Kylie McCadney and Amari Bonds.
Union City lost its opening round game in the event, 54-45 to USJ on Monday.
The Lady Tornadoes (3-5) won’t play again until Jan. 5 when they’ll join with the boys to kick off the second half of the season with a home doubleheader against Westview.
UC 66, West Carroll 42 (B)
McMillan made four first-period 3-pointers and UC connected on eight of its first nine attempts from beyond the arc as the Purple and Gold bounced back from a 30-point drubbing by Bolivar in Monday’s tournament opener.
Union City led by as many as 31 points just before halftime after scoring the second quarter’s first 10 points and holding the War Eagles without a marker for more than seven minutes.
It was 38-11 at the intermission and 52-23 after three periods as each of the 12 players who dressed for the Twisters played extensively over the final 16 minutes.
McMillan finished with 17 points – the same as he scored on Monday – to lead Union City in scoring.
Sophomore Jackson Chism tallied a career-high 12 points to join McMillan in double figures, while AJ Blackman was just a deuce shy of double figures with eight makers – all scored in the first half.
UC made 13 3-pointers in all in the contest, with Chism, Blackman and DJ Robinson all hitting two apiece, following McMillan, who canned five.
Munford 41, UC 35 (G)
The Lady Tornadoes led 15-14 at the half, but Munford – which dictated a deliberate pace throughout the contest — rallied with a 12-7 third stanza as Union City made just three field goals during that eight-minute stretch.
UC did take a brief 28-26 lead with 5:25 to play when Sophie Theobald first sank a pair of free throws, then scored on a pullup jumper.
Shelby Kirkpatrick, who made four of Munford’s seven 3-pointers, quickly answered with a triple, though, to put the Cougars back in front for good.
Bonds, who was perfect on five trey attempts, finished with a game-best 19 points for the Twister girls.
Both Theobald and Jada Williams finished with six points each.