The Drew Central Lady Pirates and Drew Central Pirates are the 2022 Commercial Bank Holiday Tournament Champions after winning three consecutive contests to claim the title.
Beginning the tournament on Wednesday, December 28, the Lady Pirates would play their first contest of the tournament against Junction City.
The Lady Pirates would start the contest by going on an 8-0 run with Sayveiona Durden and Edriana Hunter scoring four points each to start the contest.
Drew Central would go on to outscore Junction City 10-1 in the first quarter.
Junction City would have their best scoring performance of the contest. scoring six points in the second quarter, however the Lady Pirates would produce their best scoring performance of the contest in the quarter, outscoring Junction City 28-6 in the second quarter to hold a 38-7 lead at the half.
The Drew Central defense would hold the Lady Dragons to zero points in the third quarter and to three points in the fourth while outscoring Junction City 10-0 in the third and 8-3 in the fourth to take a 56-10 victory to advance to the semi-final contest on Thursday night.
Hannah Meeks would lead the Lady Pirates in scoring with 11 points followed by Edriana Hunter with 10 points. Sayveiona Durden and Bailey Chapman would each score eight, Kaliyah Miller with six, Layna Chrabol with four, and Lana Boykin with four.
Kaisa Orr, Kaiya Williams, and Emma McCrae rounded out the scoring with two points each.
For the Drew Central Pirates, the Pirates would close out the first night of tournament action on Wednesday night against the Rison Wildcats.
The Pirates would jump to a big lead in the first quarter, outscoring the Wildcats 21-4 in the first.
Drew Central would continue to increase their lead in the second quarter, outscoring Rison 28-8 in the quarter to take a 49-12 advantage at the half.
With the clock running in to begin the second half, the Pirates would outscore the Wildcats 9-7 in the third and 11-7 in the fourth to advance to the semi-final contest on Thursday with a 69-26 point win.
Tre’Bennett Fuller led the Pirates in scoring against Rison with nine points with Tramond Miller and JaCorrian Love scoring eight points each. Kade Bodiford, Alex Preddy, and David Jordan scored six.
Blake Gibson scored five, Ashton Kelly and Nick Bailey added four each, and Tralon Miller, Dayton England, and LaMarcus Bolden rounded out the scoring with three points each.
Returning on Thursday, December 29, for the semi-final contests, The Drew Central Lady Pirates would face the Maumelle Hornets.
The Lady Pirates would control the tip to begin the contest, but Maumelle would get on the board first with a three-pointer.
The Lady Pirates would get four points from Sayveiona Durden and Ali Jo Cruce with Kaiya Williams scoring two, to outscore the Hornets 10-5 in the quarter.
The Lady Pirate defense would hold Maumelle to five points in the second quarter also, outscoring the Hornets 13-5 behind three-pointers by Hannah Meeks and Edriana Hunter.
The Lady Pirates would hold a 13 point, 23-10, lead at the break.
Returning from the half, Lana Boykin would hit two three-pointers in the third quarter, but the Lady Pirates would be outscored in the quarter 8-7, to hold a 30-18 advantage heading into the fourth quarter.
In the fourth, the Hornets would attempt to make a run at the Lady Pirate lead, outscoring Drew Central 16-11 in the quarter, but the Lady Pirates were able to hold their lead to take the contest and advance to the tournament championship contest on Friday night by the score of 41-34.
Leading the way for the Lady Pirates was Ali Jo Cruce with 11 points followed by Lana Boykin with six, connecting on two three-pointers.
Kaiya Williams and Sayveiona Durden each scored five with Edriana Hunter scoring four points.
Bailey Chapman and Hannah Meeks each scored three points with Kailyah Miller and Kaisa Orr rounding out the scoring with two points each.
Taking the court after the Lady Pirates, the Pirates would face off with the Warren Lumberjacks in their semi-final contest.
The Lumberjacks would control the opening tip and would score the first six points of the contest before Tramond Miller put the Pirates on the board, scoring the first Pirate bucket with 4:30 remaining in the first quarter.
Warren would outscore Drew Central in the first quarter 15-8 with all eight of the Pirates points being scored by Tramond Miller.
Drew Central would have a better outing in the second quarter scoring 18 points. Kade Bodiford led the Pirates in the quarter with six points with Tramond Miller scoring five and Alex Preddy adding four.
The Pirates would outscore the Lumberjacks in the quarter to trail by one point, 27-26, at the half.
The Pirates would take the lead in the third quarter behind Bodiford’s 11 points in the quarter.
Drew Central would outscore Warren 16-7 in the quarter to hold a 42-34 heading into the fourth quarter.
Both teams would visit the free throw line on several occasions in the fourth quarter with Drew Central connecting on 5 of 11 and the Lumberjacks connecting on 3 of 11.
The Lumberjacks would edge out the Pirates in scoring in the quarter, outscoring Drew Central 16-15, but the Pirates held on to the seven point, 57-50 win to advance to the finals on Friday night.
Drew Central had two players reach double-digits in scoring with Kade Bodiford leading the way with 21 points followed by Tramond MIller with 18 points.
Drew Burton added five with Alex Preddy and Tralon Miller scoring four. Nick Bailey finished with three and JaCorrian Love and Tre’Bennett Fuller rounding out the scoring with one point each.
With the finals of the Commercial Bank Southeast Arkansas Holiday Tournament set, the Drew Central Lady Pirates would face off against the Magnolia Lady Panthers on Friday night.
The Lady Pirates would control the tip with Sayveiona Durden getting the first points of the contest, Magnolia would immediately come down the floor to tie the contest and score the next six points to take a eight-two advantage.
Lana Boykin would connect on a three-pointer to pull the Lady Pirates within three points, 8-5.
Magnolia would extend the lead to 11-5 before Hannah Meeks would connect on a three to cut the lead to 11-8.
Magnolia would go on to outscore the Lady Pirates 13-10 in the quarter.
The second quarter was almost similar to the first quarter with the scores being reversed.
Ali Jo Cruce would score eight points to lead the Lady Pirates in the quarter to help Drew Central outscore the Lady Panthers 13-10 in the quarter to make the contest even at 23 as the buzzer sounded for halftime.
The Lady Pirates would continue to score in double-digits in both of the final quarters of the contest with the Lady Pirate defense holding Magnolia to single digits in both quarters.
Drew Central would outscore Magnolia 12-5 in the third and 13-8 in the fourth to take a 48-36 victory capturing the 2022 Commercial Bank Southeast Arkansas Holiday Tournament Championship.
Leading the way for the Lady Pirates was Ali Jo Cruce with 18 points followed by Sayveiona Durden and Lana Boykin each added six points.
Hannah Meeks scored five points, Bailey Chapman with four, and Edriana Hunter scoring three.
Kassidie Gilbert, Layna Chrabol, and Kaiya WIlliams rounded out the scoring with two points each.
The Drew Central Pirates would get an opportunity to avenge an earlier season loss in the finals of the tournament, facing the Star City Bulldogs, who had defeated the Pirates 54-50 on December 1.
Star City would control the opening tip, but Drew Central would get on the board first with two points by Kade Bodiford.
The Pirates would spread the scoring out amongst several players in the first quarter with Bodiford and JaCorrian Love leading on the scoreboard with four points each in the quarter.
The Pirates would outscore Star City 15-8 in the quarter.
Neither team could gain an advantage in the second quarter with each team scoring big in the quarter.
Each team scored 19 points in the quarter with Drew Central holding a 34-27 lead at the half.
Returning from the intermission, the Pirates would put together not only the best scoring performance of the game, but possibly one of the best one quarter scoring performances of the season.
The Pirates would connect on five three-pointers in the third quarter with Tralon Miller and Drew Burton connecting on one three each and Kade Bodiford hitting three.
The Pirates would score 32 third quarter points to outscore Star City 32-13 in the quarter to take a 66-40 lead heading into the fourth quarter.
In the fourth, Star City would outscore the Pirates 17-13 in the quarter with the Pirates taking the 2022 Commercial Bank Southeast Arkansas Tournament title, 79-57.
Kade Bodiford would lead the Pirates in scoring with 24 points followed by Tralon Miller with 12 points.
Tramond MIller, JaCorrian Love, and Drew Burton each added eight points, David Jordan added seven, and Nick Bailey with six.
Alex Preddy scored four and JaMarcus Bolden rounded out the scoring with three points.
With the wins, both the Lady Pirates and Pirates improved on their 2021 Runner-up finishes in the tournament.
With the 2022 portion of the basketball season completed, the teams will now turn to conference play for the remainder of the 2022-23 season.
The Pirates currently have an overall record of 10-5 on the year and a 2-0 record in 3A-8 Conference play.
For the Lady Pirates, the team currently has an overall record of 11-4 with a 2-0 record in 3A-8 Conference play.
The Lady Pirates and Pirates will host Dumas on Friday, January 6, with the Drew Central Junior Pirates tipping off at 5 pm.
The teams will be on the road Tuesday, January 10, travelling to McGehee to face the Owls and Lady Owls. The Junior Lady Pirates will be the first team to take the court with a tip scheduled for 5 pm.
