Speedway wins sectional title for third straight year

For the first time in school history the Speedway Sparkplugs took home their third consecutive sectional title Saturday night. They beat their neighbor, Covenant Christian, 54-33.

A slow start rattled both teams. Covenant Christian (10-13) started 0 of 3 from the field and Speedway (16-6 4-3 HCC) started 0 of 4 from the field before Warriors' junior Jonathan Bradley scored two of his six points on an assist from senior Cody Owen with 5:19 left in the first.

The Sparkplugs answered back four straight times before getting out to a 14-2 lead. Junior Anthony Jones led the rush scoring six of those points.

Warriors' junior Ethan Smith hit a three off a pass from sophomore Keaton Johnson to slow the Sparkplug run.

Smith hit another three along with six points from Owen and the Warriors made a run of their own only going into halftime down five, 21-16.

Speedway bombed out of the locker room and quickly made it clear that they wanted to win. Senior Jordan Furlow did the job on defense with four steals and a mind-blowing block, but his offense was exceptional, scoring right around his season average with 19. They led by 11 going into the final quarter of play.

The fourth quarter had to be Covenant Christian's best but, like the third, Speedway increased the lead. Sophomore Shannon Hall was the dirty man on the inside scoring six and Furlow finished the job getting two lay-ups.

The Warriors were unable to match their totals and fell to a deficit of 21, which they lost by.

This was a rematch of an earlier season game, in which, Covenant Christian took Speedway into overtime but fell just short.

Warriors' senior Trevor Johnson was unavailable with an ankle injury and that was a huge blow for his team. He averages around 20 points per game and his team could have used it Friday.

At South Putnam

Cov. Christian (33):Owen 9, Bradley 6, Joseph 6, Smith 6, Siefert 4, Marsh 2, Tucker 0.

Speedway (54):Furlow 19, Jones 15, Hall 6, Burnell 5, Kinnick 5, Ahrens 2, Milton 2, Schall 0, Vernon 0.

Team Stats

Assists: CC 5, SW 5 Blocks: CC 3, SW 4 Steals: CC 4, SW 17 Turnovers: CC 21, SW 11 Rebounds: CC (2-16)18, SW (7-15)22 FG: CC 15-36, SW 23-46 FT: CC 0-2, SW 7-11