Inez, Ky. — The Louisa East Bulldogs captured the C-Team and B-Team EKEBC tournament championships on Monday night.
The Louisa East Elementary School continued their phenomenal year of athletic achievements and championships. The girls basketball team won the A-Team EKEBC championship back in the fall. Monday, February 3rd, was no different. The Louisa East C and B teams played for championships!
The Louisa East C and B teams finished off their year with undefeated conference and tournament CHAMPIONS. The Eastern Kentucky Elementary Basketball Conference (EKEBC) is made up of 10 teams in Lawrence, Martin, Magoffin, and Johnson counties. All schools, except for Louisa East, are elementary schools that go through 6th grade. Louisa East Elementary is a 2nd through 5th grade school.
The Louisa C-team had a very successful year. The team is made up of all 2nd and 3rd grade players. This made them the youngest team in the conference and were almost always playing up 1-2 grade levels. Their overall record was 28-1. Their only loss came to a 4th grade travel team. They beat teams from Lawrence, Martin, Johnson, Magoffin, Boyd, Greenup, Fleming, and Carter counties, along with Ashland in Kentucky, and Rock Hill, Ohio in the regular season.
In the conference tournament, Louisa East C-team earned the overall #1 seed. The C-team had to win 3 games to capture the championship. That is exactly what they did.
Up first was Fallsburg Elementary. They won their opening game 26-0. Next, in the semifinals game, they faced Saylersville Grade School where they knocked them off 21-2. In the championship game, the young Bulldogs had a convincing win over Paintsville 30-8. Louisa lead the whole game, from wire to wire. They outscored their opponents in the tournament 77-10. This is the 3rd consecutive C-team conference championship in the EKEBC. The conference is in its 3rd year, making Louisa East the only C-team champions in history.
Louisa East C-Team
2nd graders- #3 Cory Keeton, #4 Eli Block, #11 Tyson Muncy, #12 Ryder Endicott, #24 Sawyer Laney, #31 Paxton Pinson, #32 Waylon Raines, and #34 Easton Thompson. 3rd graders- #2 Easton Osborn, #10 Rylan Spillman, and #14 Colton Bentley.
Up next, it was the B-team’s turned. A lot of the B-team players are in their 3rd year at Louisa East and coming off back to back C-team championships. They are going for a 3-peat. The B-team at Louisa East consists of all 4th graders. Their overall record for the year was 25-2. Their losses came to the Martin County Middle School JV team and Ironton 5th grade. They were able to get wins over teams from Lawrence, Martin, Johnson, Magoffin, Boyd, Greenup, Fleming, and Rowan counties of Kentucky and Ironton, Ohio.
They also entered the EKEBC tournament as the overall #1 seed. They needed 3 wins to capture another championship.
Up first, the Bulldogs knocked off Warfield 45-4. In the semifinals game, Louisa beat North Magoffin 31-20. The championship was again set for Louisa East vs Paintsville Elementary. The B- team championship was played in front of a packed house at Martin County Middle School. Louisa East jumped out to a 5-4 lead and never trailed the rest of the game. The final score was 30-18 in favor of the Bulldogs. Louisa outscored their opponents 106-42 in the 3 games during the tournament. This is the 2nd B-team history in school history, with the last being 2023.
Louisa East B-Team
All 4th graders #5 Brayson Raines, #7 Tucker Dixon, #20 Lucas Block, #23 Tucker Muncy, #25 Lucas McDaniel, #30 Foster Cline, #35 Gunner Cornwell, #44 Jaxon Chafin, #50 Jake Vanhoose, #51 Aiden Newsome, #53 Gunner Blevins.
The C-team and B-team finished with a combined 53-3 record and 2 championships.
The A-team had a very successful season finishing with a 23-6 record. They lost in the conference tournament in the semifinals to the eventual champions, Salyersville Grade School.
The A-team consisted of all 5th graders. They set perfect examples on and off the court as their last year at Louisa East Elementary.
The A-team roster consists of: #1 Easton Caudill, #15 Jaxon Dunn, #21 Ashby Lyons, #22 Isaac Sturgell, #33 Dane Kitts, #34 Walt Shannon, #40 Lukas Osborn, #42 Silas Rose, #43 Gavin Perry, #52 Noah Patton, and #55 Noah Stewart.
The A, B, and C- teams finished with a 76-9 record, 93% win percentage.
The Louisa East coaching staff consisted of Jordan Raines, Matt Shannon, Ricky Osborn, Jeremy Block and statistician CJ Perkins.
The players and coaches would like to thank the administration, teachers, office staff, and Mrs. Webb for all their support year.
