Dora boys win Domino’s Pizza Classic second year in a row

For the second consecutive year, the Dora boys were the victors in last week’s Domino’s PIzza Classic. Sixteen teams from eight different schools competed in the tournament.
Thursday night was a sad night for the Dora teams, in spite of a 50-38 victory by the junior Falcons. “That day we laid to rest Michael Mickey (former owner of Domino’s Pizza and one of the tournament founders),” said coach Rick Luna. “Mickey, along with Marcus Lipford and I, started the Domino’s Pizza Classic 15 years ago when I worked at Fairview School.” 
The tournament moved with Luna when he was hired  at Dora High School 11 years ago. “Mickey was a proud patron of Fairview School and served on its board of education for several years,” said Luna.  “Mickey not only wanted to help the Fairview and Dora students, he always had a helping hand out to any and all the surrounding schools in the community.  Thursday night just happened to have Dora vs. Fairview in the semi-final boys matchup.  Before the game, we took a moment to honor the late great Michael Mickey for his outstanding contributions to the Domino’s tournament and the surrounding community.”
Girls consolation game
The Bakersfield Lady Lions were matched up against the Lady Comets from Alton in the consolation round Friday night.  Bakers-field jumped out to a 12-4 lead after Alton got in early foul trouble, but Alton came back strong in the second half behind Kaylee Mocks’s 13 second-quarter points, putting the Comets ahead 22-18 at the break.  Bakersfield had a strong run late in the game but couldn’t come back.  Alton won 48-41.  Alton’s leading scorers were Kaylee Mock with 20 and Cass Cunningham with 13.
Shelby Summers led the scoring for Bakersfield with 16.
Boys consolation game
The Richards Rockets faced off against the Chadwick Cardinals in the boys consolation game.  Richards jumped out to an early lead and never looked back, winningthe contest 56-39.  Isaac Haney was the leading scorer for Richards with 27, followed by Jake Newberry with 11 and Jonathan Bibb with 10.  Chadwick had two players with 7 points – Hayden Farris and Tucker Johnson.
Third-place games
Fairview and Koshkonong played each other in the third-place girls game.  Fairview jumped out to a 16-7 lead with their early pressure and held the lead throughout the game. Fairview outscored Kosh 28-11 at half and won the game 40-29.  Leading scorers for Fairview were Mia Harris with 17 and Makenzie Brunson with 8.  Leading the way for Kosh was Lorna Howell with 13.
Fairview and Alton boys were matched up in the third-place game of the tournament. Fairview jumped out of the gate with a 15-5 lead.  Alton made a run in the second quarter, outscoring Fairview 11-7 to pull within 6 points for a 22-16 halftime score.  The second half was a great battle, but Fairview overcome several rallies behind Eli McGinley’s 19 points and came away with a 48-37 win over Alton.  Alton’s Drew Clary led the Comets with 19.
A 3-point contest was held before the championship games, and Shelby Coursey from Fairview made 11, beating out Alton’s Cass Cunningham, who made 8.   In the boys 3-point contest, Isaac Haney from Richards and Drew Clary from Alton both made 14; however Isaac hit three money balls (last ball on the rack) and Drew only hit one money ball, so Haney earned the championship title.
Girls championship game
The girls championship  matchup found defending champ Richards Rockets taking on the Chadwick Cardinals.  “This was a defensive battle from the start,” said Luna.  “Both are very good offensive teams and they struggled against each other’s defense.”  At the end of the first quarter, the Lady Rockets were up 6-4; however by halftime, the Cardinals had a 12-6 lead.  The second half was much like the first with both teams struggling to put the ball in the net.  Richards managed just 6 points to Chadwick’s 8 points in the second half, and  Chadwick walked away with a 20-12 win.  Breanna Harlin from Richards had 11 and Chadwick’s Stevi Jones had 13 points.
Boys championship game
The battle for the championship turned out to be a rematch of last year’s contest between the Dora Falcons and the Glenwood Mustangs.  Dora won last year’s tournament, so Glenwood was out for revenge against the Falcons, Luna said.  Dora jumped out to a 20-0 first-quarter lead behind some good defense.  “I thought our boys played as well as we have played all year both defensively and offensively,” Luna said.  “We stuck to our game plan and they played better than I thought they would with it.” 
By halftime, Dora was up 38-6.    Dora went on to win 56-16 to capture their second straight tournament title.  Bryson Luna led all scorers with 19, followed by Mason Luna 15, Auston Luna 7, Kyle Hambleton, 5, Carson Lowe 4, Colby Collins 3, Tyler Luna 2 and Bo Collins 1.  The Mustangs’ Erik Washington had 8, Cutter Lamar 5, Taylor Harrison 2, and Dagen Green with 1.
The Luna triplets – Mason, Auston and Bryson – were named tournament MVPs.

Dora Falcons junior high boys basketball team