Pioneers win MED Tournament title

After sealing up the Mountain Empire District Regular Season Title last week the Fort Chiswell Pioneer Boys’ Basketball Team took the MED Tournament Title by storm as they defeated the Grayson Co. Blue Devils on Friday 76-60 and the Auburn Eagles on Saturday in the Championship 77-55.

As FC senior guard, Kenton Sutphin, stated in an interview with Fresh Off The Clock, ” we just played our game and that’s who we are.” The Pioneers have been just doing that as they have picked it up on defense the last 10 or 12 games by forcing a crazy amount of turnovers. Both Grayson and Auburn combined for over 30 turnovers during the tournament and the Fort also shot the ball very well as a team. FC tossed in 9 three pointers in the Grayson game and followed it up with 10 long balls in the Championship Game behind Kenton Sutphin’s 6, Ty Crockett’s 6, Landon Eversole’s 3, Owen Jackson’s 2, and Cade McPherson and Jessie Ayers each had one three-point goal a piece over the two game stretch.

Sophomore guard Owen Jackson, drew the normal attention with junk defenses and sometimes two and three defenders but managed to lead the Pioneers in scoring in both games with 25 on the Devils and 31 on the Eagles. Jackson also pulled down 15 rebounds to help the Pioneers prevail over Auburn. Kenton Sutphin closed out his last MED Tournament with a bang as he tallied 16 points and 14 assists vs. Grayson and 13 points and 8 assists against Auburn.

Eli Eversole and Ty Crockett also had a solid tournament as Eversole notched 15 points and 9 rebounds on the Devils and 10 points and two big blocks on the Eagles while Crockett shot lights out on Grayson as he hit four threes and scratched 12 total points on the night.

With the two wins, the Pioneers have raised their overall record to 19 wins and 5 losses with a perfect 14-0 record in the MED this year. Bath County will roll into the Fort next week for the first round of Region C play.