Whitehouse wins Abilene tournament

The Whitehouse Wildcats headed west to Abilene last week with one goal in mind: to get the championship title back.

The December trip to Abilene has become a tradition of Whitehouse basketball over the years, and the Cats have claimed several tournament titles but coming off of last year’s disappointment, they were determined to bring the title back to Whitehouse.

In the first game on Thursday evening, the Wildcats faced Graham who found themselves to be overmatched by the Wildcats in a 77-46 blowout win for the Cats.

Cade Clark led all scorers with 19 points followed by Kyle Ford’s 13. Kye Heck would add 9 points while Mitch Marquis would add 7 on a night that saw eleven players in the scorebook.

On Friday, the Wildcats would match up with Brownfield and would use strong second and third quarters to pull away with a 73-57 victory. Clark and Marquis would provide most of the scoring punch with 24 and 17 points, respectively, while Luke Shivers would add 11 on the night.

With the win, the Cats set up a championship game with the hometown team from Abilene Wylie on Saturday.

Wylie got blitzed early as Clark would pour in 10 of his game high 24 points in the first quarter helping Whitehouse stake an early 21-6 lead. The hot start by the Wildcats would be too much for Wylie to overcome, as Whitehouse would cruise to a 65-49 victory claiming the championship and meeting their goal of bringing the title back home.

Ford would follow Clark with 21 points as he would heat up from outside in the second half and Brady Parker would chip 11 points of his own. Clark was awarded most valuable player of the tournament while Marquis and Ford were both named to the all tournament team.

Coach Wally Dawkins addressed the basketball parents at a meeting Monday night, echoing a statement made in Abilene that “this may be the best Whitehouse team in several years.”

The 11-1 Wildcats head to T.K. Gorman tomorrow night before the annual visit to the Wagstaff Tournament over the Christmas holidays.