Middle school basketball will come to a conclusion this week as the county championships are set to be played Wednesday afternoon at Midway Middle School. Both the boys and girls championships will see Midway Middle squaring off against Sampson Middle, with the girls playing first at 4 p.m. and the boys set to follow.

On the the girls side, Midway reached the championship game by defeating Union, 39-10 in the first round. The Lady Raiders led 14-5 at halftime and then used a huge second half to put the Lady Spartans away, 39-10. Leading scorers for Midway were Kris’Shyia McCoy and Sydney Williams each with six points, Maranda Byrd and Allison Belflowers each with five points, and Deniah Holder, Talisha McNeill, and Alyssa Hargrove all with four points. Rounding out the scoring for Midway was Rylie Williams with three and Anaya West added two.

Sampson Middle reached the championship game by defeating Roseboro-Salemburg in overtime in the first round. Scores for Sampson, Union and Roseboro-Salemburg were not immediately available.

Over on the boys side, Midway reached the championship game by defeating Hobbton, 48-42. The Raiders led 28-20 at halftime and would hang on for the 6-point win. Leading the way for Midway was Sawyer Sutton with 21 points and Lane Baggett with eight. Hobbton was led by Holliday with 20 points and Warren with eight.

After the game, Midway coach Josh Bullard was pleased with his team getting a fourth victory over Hobbton and looks forward to championship game.

“Going into the game I told my boys it was not going to be easy to win tonight. To beat a team four times in one season is hard to do especially with trying to stop Holliday and with the size Hobbton has down low,” Bullard said. “My team fought hard and we were able to make some free throws down the stretch to come away with the win. We are looking forward to playing in the championship game on our home floor in front of our fans.”

For Sampson Middle, they defeated Union 33-27. The game was a close contest through out much of the way as Sampson was clinging to a 17-15 halftime lead. Taking advantage of points off turnovers, the Dark Horses were able to hold on the 33-27 victory. Zyon Smith led Sampson with 14 points while Lyle Brewington contributed 11.

“We didn’t play well to start the game, we seemed a of sync,” noted Dark Horse head coach Ron Davis. “We took some time to get going offensively but we fought through it. We played great defensively, especially in the second half, we were able to get a lot of points off turnovers.”

Now, they face Midway in the championship game.

“They beat us once in the regular season and we beat them twice,” Davis remarked. “We’re going to have to play perfect to get the win.”

Conference Championships set for Wednesday

By Daron Barefoot

Sports Editor

Reach Daron Barefoot at [email protected].