Cody Leonard put back-to-back high-point games for the Carrollton Hawks as they moved to the title game of the Beardstown Tourney on Friday night.
Leonard tossed in 36 points in Carrollton's 79-47 victory over South Fulton on Friday.
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The Carrollton Hawks outgunned the Rushville-Industry Rockets 53-37 in the Beardstown Tournament on Thursday night. The Hawks improve to 23-0 in the tournament and 18-3 overall for the season.
"We played great," head coach Jeff Krumwiede said.
Carrollton beat Midwest Central 55-49 on Tuesday night but head coach Krumwiede was more pleased with last night’s performance.
“We did well tonight, our intensity was better,” Krumwiede said. “Once again different people stepped up and we only had four people score.”
Cody Leonard led the Hawks with 22 points. Luke Palan and Jacob Smith each finished with 14 points. The only other Hawk to score was Levi Hinderhan, whose only bucket was a three pointer in the first quarter.
“We came out and hit some three’s and were able to get in transition,” Krumwiede said.
Carrollton burst out to an 11-2 lead, but Rushville did not let the Hawks run away with it early. They battled back to make it 14-10 after the first quarter. The second quarter was more like a three-point contest as each team hit three treys. Palan was the Hawks’ source for those. Carrollton then went on a 10-2 run to close out the half, punctuated by a Cody Leonard dunk.
It was 35-23 at halftime, but the Hawks came out sluggish on offense in the third quarter. They made up for it by playing solid defense and suffocating Rushville’s 6’5” Manning Plater, who finished with 12 points, but only two came in the second half.
“Plater’s a big time player and he had to work extremely hard to get his 12 points,” Krumwiede said.
It was 42-28 Carrollton going into the fourth quarter, and they controlled the ball exceptionally well to close out the game with ease. Palan, Smith, and Cole Brannan swung the ball around the perimeter, Palan drove to the basket, and he dished to an open Leonard several times that resulted in baskets.
“When we spread it out at the end and forced them to chase us that is when we are at our best,” Krumwiede said.
The Hawks have been without junior shooting guard Luke Gillingham, who missed this game and the last one with a sprained ankle he suffered against Pleasant Hill last Friday.
“Its no secret that Gillingham’s a big part of our offense, he’s our leading scorer,” Krumwiede said.
“My original hopes was that he could see limited action tomorrow, I don’t know if that’s going to happen,” Krumwiede said. “We got him walking around tonight off the crutches. If he’s available for limited action that’s great, if he’s not then we will re-evaluate for one more day.”
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