Kingsville Boys Basketball Team Captures Drexel Tourney Title

 

The Kingsville boys basketball team closed out the William D. Gordon Holiday Classic Tournament at Drexel High School by hoisting the first-place trophy with a win over Windsor by the final score of 66-35 on Friday, Dec. 29.

The Tigers controlled the game in all phases by outscoring the Greyhounds in every quarter, and holding Windsor to 10 or fewer points in each quarter.

“I’m proud of them, and I’m happy for them,” said Kingsville boys basketball coach Bill Adams. “I mean, I want them to have success, and they’ve worked for what success they’ve had. This is the first tournament final for Kingsville since 2016. I don’t know when the last tournament win was…have to go back and look on the banner. It’s in the gym. In 2016 they lost a tournament final. We’ve never been in one since then.”
In the Tigers’s win over Windsor, Kingsville worked to a 14-10 lead after a quarter of play with scoring contributions coming from Christian Stevenson, Brayden Barnett, and Brady Stout.

Kingsville’s full-court press helped keep Windsor to six points in the second quarter as Chase Stout, John Fleeman, and Brett Evinger joined Stevenson, Barnett, and Brady Stout in posting points.

The halftime scoreboard showed the Tigers ahead 26-16.

“I loved how they shared the ball,” said coach Adams. “I loved how they talked on both ends of the floor. John’s a good quarterback for that. He’s very good about guiding people on the defensive end. And then, we’re outsized every game, except for John, but we went and rebounded pretty tough. We don’t back down from there.”

Versus Windsor, the Tigers continued a trend of strong defensive efforts in the tournament after holding Miami to 30 points in an 87-30 first-round win for Kingsville, and keeping Midway to 28 points in a 40-28 victory in the championship semifinals.

“We always want to play good defense,” said coach Adams. “It doesn’t always pan out that way, but we have that intention. They deserve what they got because they work hard. They try and get better. We’re not perfect, but we try to be perfect. Their effort is always very good. I just loved that they talked and worked as a team.”

A 24-point effort from Kingsville in the third quarter versus seven points from the Greyhounds in the same stretch put the Tigers in control of the game and set the score at 50-25 heading into the final frame.

The third quarter scoring for Kingsville included an 8-2 run for Kingsville with Brady Stout connecting on two three-point shots and two free throws. Chase Stout scored a field goal on an fast break assist from Stevenson for the eighth point in the run. Brady Stout added a three-point shot later in the quarter as Fleeman with five points and Barnett with a free throw helped Kingsville to the 25-point lead at the end of the third.
While continuing to control both the ball and the clock in the fourth quarter, the Tigers prowled to a 16-10 advantage to close out the contest as reserve players gained playing time in the final minutes.

“We always talk about staying in structure,” said coach Adams. “We bring in guys into the game. They want to score. I say get it out of structure, and they score and they’re like this is pretty cool. So we always talk to them about staying in structure on both ends of the floor and not going crazy, trying to do what we do, and then hopefully, good things happen.”

Notably, the Tigers played the game without the services of junior guard Isaac Hawthorne who led Kingsville in scoring with 13 points versus Midway in the semifinals.

“Isaac was sick,” said coach Adams. “We put someone else in. We played with six instead of seven. It’s usually seven.”

Brady Stout finished with a game-high 22 points in the trophy win. Fleeman finished with 17 points. Barnett totaled 12 points to put three Tigers in double digits. Chase Stout totaled 6 points. Scoring 3 points each were Stevenson, Brett Evinger, and Gavin Mullins.

The first-place tournament win gave the Kingsville boys basketball team its fourth win in a row and its eighth total win on the season. Coming off of the tournament championship, the Tigers recorded a home win over Wellington by the final score of 53-49 on Friday, Jan. 5.

After the win over Wellington, the Kingsville boys basketball team held a record of 9-5 on the season.

“We’ve played a tough schedule,” said coach Adams. “I added up the other day the records of our five losses. Those teams were 35-16, so we’ve played good teams. Obviously, we didn’t beat them, but some of those, we held our own for quite a while and competed. It helps us later down the road.”

All-Tournament Team
For his play in the William D. Gordon Holiday Classic, Kingsville sophomore center John Fleeman was named to the All-Tournament team.
Coach Adams identified Fleeman’s attributes displayed both in the tournament and during the season.

“His leadership,” said coach Adams. “He talks all the time on defense. He’s the quarterback back there. He sees everything. He has a ton of experience. I felt like Brady should have been on it, too. I felt like Brady deserved to be on the all-tournament team, but it’s not my vote. He did a lot of good things for us, too. I think he deserved that, but it wasn’t to be. I think his teammates realize how valuable he is. That’s important.”