MUNCIE, INDIANA-- Welcome to the second annual City of Champions tournament held by Muncie Central in the Muncie Field house. In this two-game tournament, teams will battle it out on the court to find the real champion. Following Muncie Central, the Bearcats started their day at 10 a.m. against Muncie Burris, where they handled business in a 46-30 win.
After a 10-hour break, they were back on the court at 8 p.m. to defend their home court against the Greenfield-Central Cougars. After a hard-fought defensive battle, the Cougars landed on top following the tournament MVP, Dylan Moles’s, 16 points in a 52-41 win. Despite coming up short, coach Ullom of Muncie central was more than happy with his team after a second-place finish.
“I thought we got back to playing how we were the first nine or 10 games of the year. I thought our effort was really really good, we rebounded well, our defense was there almost all day with the effort we wanted,” Halloway said.
The players were not the only ones winning this tournament. Paired with Sports Link and Muncie Central, the Muncie Burris media department got the opportunity to film and even broadcast the championship game live.
Muncie Central Athletic Director, Jeff Halloway, finds this opportunity to be important for those that may not be able to be on the court but still want athletic involvement. He sets a goal to make this student opportunity even better for even more students.
“I think that's a huge part of it. I think it's amazing, I see that, and I want to get that for our kids here at Muncie central. [I want to] partner with Sports Link and Burris again, and kinda get some of our kids involved and make it even bigger,” Halloway said.
Mr. Halloway keeps his ambitions high for his tournament, as he makes his goals moving forward clear. With hopes of expanding his tournament for more players to play and improve community involvement, he may be looking for a new home for the championship games.
“We want to hopefully grow it and get some more teams involved. We also want to get involved with Worthen Arena, maybe play championship games there, get the community involved and partner with Ball State even more,” Halloway said.
As Halloway looks to improve his tournament for the next year, coach Ullom is planning for his last eight games before playoffs start on February 28th.
Contact Maxwell Robson for comments at maxwell.robson@bsu.edu
