The all-tournament team at the 40th Annual Preble Shawnee Holiday Tournament consisted of Valley View’s Micah Valenti and Brody Denny, Twin Valley South’s Jandon Ankrom, Preble Shawnee’s Isaac Blankenship, Logan Hawley and Mason Shrout (MVP).
Eric Deeter | For The Register-Herald
CAMDEN — For the first time since the opening game of the season Preble Shawnee’s boys’ basketball team faced a test deep into the fourth quarter.
The Arrows built a double-digit lead over Valley View in the championship game of the Preble Shawnee Holiday Tournament then had to hold off a Spartan rally down the stretch to claim the title at the 40th annual event, 62-56, on Saturday, Dec. 30.
“Found a way win,” Shawnee coach Jake Turner said. “They (Valley View) made a lot of plays. You got to give a lot of credit to them. They’re a good team. They got some big wins already. They are going to win a lot more. They’re going to make a run. They’re good team. Got to give credit to them they made plays, made some big shots.”
It was also a memorable weekend for Shawnee senior Mason Shrout, who was named the tournament’s Most Valuable Player.
In the semifinal against Tri-County North on Friday, Dec. 29, Shrout set a new single-game scoring record with 45 points as the Arrows rolled by the Panthers, 80-22. During the same game he also became the program’s all-time career assists leader.
“Well deserved,” Turner said. “Nobody works harder than him. He deserves all these records he’s breaking. He’s worked his butt off to get all these and he deserves it. There’s not a harder working young man that I’ve been around. Proud of him and I know he’s happy. That’s impressive. A guy who can score, pass it, rebound and he’s just an all-around great player; a once in a lifetime special player.”
In the win over Valley View, Shrout led the way with 29 points, 11 rebounds, three assists and three steals.
Shawnee built an 18-10 lead after the first quarter and extended the lead to 32-17 with just over a minute left in the second quarter as they appeared ready for another blowout win, taking a 33-20 halftime lead.
The Spartans, led by freshman Brody Denny’s 34 points, had other ideas as they outscored Shawnee 13-5 over the first four-plus minutes of the third quarter to get withing 38-33.
Shawnee entered the fourth quarter with a 46-41 lead. The Arrows pushed their lead to 52-45 with 4:40 left on a basket by senior Logan Hawley, who finished with 12 points and 11 rebounds, despite battle foul trouble and eventually fouling out with 3:11 left.
Back-to-back threes by Valley View made it a 52-51 game with 2:34 left.
But Shrout took over down the stretch scoring final 10 points for the Arrows.
“We struggled with some stuff tonight,” Turner said. “We got to fix some stuff. But I think some of it was them. I think we got beat off the bounce way too much, gave the guy a little bit too many clean looks and he knocked them down. Help side defense wasn’t very good. I thought we forced a lot on offense where when we did move the ball, we got whatever we wanted. That’s something we’ve been preaching. We didn’t share the ball well tonight. Very disappointing, eight assists. That’s one of the things we’ve been preaching the last couple of weeks. I don’t know, just frustrating.”
Turner also praised the play of senior Case Roell and freshman Knox Mills.
“We had some guys foul out. Some guys stepped up. We told them there in the locker room, Knox and Case stepped up and did what they were supposed to do. Didn’t hurt you,” Turner said. “They made some plays down the stretch, took care of it.”
Turner added it’s always good to win your own tournament.
“It’s always good when you can win your own tournament. We can in with the mindset win by at least one. That’s all it matters, find a way to get a W,” he said. “I think this game will help us a lot moving forward. I think we can go back to watch film, correct some things, work on it next week and be ready to go next Friday.”
In the consolation game, Twin Valley South knocked off Tri-County North 49-36 behind Jandon Ankrom’s 23-point, 15 rebound performance. Chandler Ulrich added 12 points and Trent Ray pulled down 11 points.
Parker Overcash led North with 15 points and Clint Barnes added 12.
North led 11-9 after one, but South took the lead into the half, 20-17.
South opened the second half with a 9-0 run which eventually turned into an 18-3 run for a 38-20 lead late in the third.
In the first round, South fell to Valley View 74-56.
The all-tournament team consisted of Shrout, Hawley, Isaac Blankenship (Preble Shawnee), Denny, Micah Valenti (Valley View) and Ankrom.
Shawnee (8-0) was scheduled to travel to Tri-County North (1-8) on Friday, Jan. 5 and visit Middletown Madison on Saturday.
Twin Valley South (3-5) was scheduled to host National Trail on Friday.
Reach Eddie Mowen Jr. at 937-683-4061 and follow on X @emowenjr.
