UHA’s KJ Crump continued his high-scoring weekend with 25 points in the finale of the Paducah Tilghman Christmas Tournament on Saturday night, but it wasn’t enough in a 72-66 loss to the host Blue Tornado. Tilghman finishes the weekend unbeaten to claim the tourney title, while the Blazers settled for third at 1-2. Calloway County took second and Cairo, IL was winless to finish fourth.
Crump would average over 23 points per game over the three tournament games, but it took him a while to get going with only 4 first-half points against the Blue Tornado. Amani McGee picked up the scoring slack with 9 in the first quarter, but Tilghman’s Jahiem Concentine matched McGee and they led by as many as 14. The Blazers scored the final 10 points, capped by a Noah Shouse 3-pointer, to trim the margin to 4 after one.
The Blue Tornado restored the double-digit lead early in the second and led 33-23 after a 3-pointer by Eli Brown with 1:55 left in the half, before taking a 10-point edge into the halftime break.
It was DJ Quarles’ turn for the Blazers in the third, knocking down a 3-pointer on either side of a Crump layup to cut the lead to 6. After getting as close as 3, the Blazers trailed by 11 before Quarles connected on his third 3 of the quarter to go to the fourth down 8.
The Blazers found themselves down 12 with 6:25 to play, but Crump wasn’t going quietly. He would score 16 of UHA’s next 17 points, capped by a pull-up in the lane to slash the Tilghman lead to 3 at 64-61 with 1:42 left.
However, the Blue Tornado responded with four made free throws, part of an 8-12 performance at the line over the final eight minutes, to put it out of the Blazers’ reach.
Crump’s 25 led all scorers, including 21 in the second half, followed by McGee with 21 and Quarles with 11.
The Blazers slip to 3-6 and will return to the court after Christmas with a trip to the Lake Cumberland Holiday Hoops Classic to face Somerset, owners of a six-game winning streak and a 7-1 record.
