Miller Lady Cardinals take second in tough Walnut Grove Tournament 

Miller was busy the last couple weeks as they competed in perhaps the best small school tournament in the entire state at the Morris Brothers Holiday Classic in Walnut Grove. The Lady Cardinals looked to hoist the ridiculously tall six-foot trophy once again after going back-to-back before finishing third last season.
Versus Willard JV
As the top seed in the tournament, they opened the tournament against Willard’s JV squad.
Miller jumped out to a quick start as you would expect out of a top seed as Loghann Leivan and Ashlynn Helton played a part in a 6-0 run to begin the game. After Willard knocked down a shot, Leivan and Helton each responded with a three to open up a 12-2 lead. Willard responded with a run themselves behind two buckets from Khloe Jones and cut the lead to 12-7.
Miller continued to push the pace and ran off the upset minded Willard JV squad with a 60-33  victory.
Versus Ash Grove
The win set up a showdown with Ash Grove. After both teams had convincing round one wins, they were back at the gym at 9 a.m. the next morning for a thrilling quarterfinal game.
Ash Grove got on the board first behind a free throw from Milly Sapp but points would be hard to come by for both teams. Neither team would score again until the 3:00 mark when Leivan nailed the triple to put Miller on top. Leivan kept going with two more buckets to push the lead to 7-1 in an extremely physical first quarter of play.
The physicality continued throughout the game and into the fourth quarter when Miller managed to push the lead out to 31-18 after an and-one from Leivan. Ash Grove made a run late to cut it to single digits but Miller ultimately pulled away late to secure the 42-33 victory as an early Christmas present.
Versus Blue Eye
Miller returned to Walnut Grove the day after Christmas and we were the ones treated with the gift as two of the best teams in Class 2 went after it as the Lady Cardinals challenged Blue Eye. As Miller likes to play, this was another defensive battle as they keyed in on Blue Eye’s Kaylee Wilson who had gone off for 30 in the quarterfinal round. Miller took her out of the game as she was held to just eight points. Miller cruised late to a 40-24 victory.
Versus Walnut Grove
The semifinal win set up a championship matchup against the likely two best teams in the tournament, and the game lived up to the hype. Miller and Walnut Grove have met twice in the last 365 days, each of them resulting in a three-point Walnut Grove victory.
Miller jumped out first but the duo of Jacie Gavisk and Ellie Smith gave Walnut Grove the lead back late in the first quarter. The Lady Tigers built up a nine-point lead early in the third quarter but Leivann hit a pair of threes in the fourth and the game came down to the very end. Alexis Bailey briefly gave Miller the lead with about three minutes left. However, Smith was fantastic down the stretch and Walnut Grove defeated the Lady Cardinals 43-39 in the championship game.
Miller improves 8-5 for the season as the toughest part of the schedule is now behind them. They will be back in action Friday as they travel to Wheaton.
 
Miller boys pick up tough victory in Walnut Grove Tournament

Wheaton were the aggressors early, scoring the first five points of the game before Miller’s Jarod Lung hit a three ball to get the Cardinals on the scoreboard. But it was Zander Dutra that opened up the lead for the underdog Bulldogs with three straight buckets that opened a 11-3 lead over Miller. Defense and the size for Wheaton was a problem for Miller as turnovers were the primary demon that led to the Cardinals deficit. Nate Hill hit a pair of free throws and Owen Weiss hit a three to cut the deficit to 13-8 but Houston Roller got a bucket to fall and Wheaton led 15-10 after one quarter.
The back-and-forth continued for two more quarters, with Wheaton maintaining a 34-30 lead heading into the fourth. Fighting to a 38 tie, timely shooting did the trick for the Cardinals who eventually snagged the win, 43-39.
“I told my guys at halftime that we were the 10-seed last year and beat seven-seed Marionville and there’s not much difference between the even and the 10 and we had to play harder and we responded to it,” said Miller coach Brandon Weiss said following the victory. “We had several guys really step up and hit big shots down the stretch and the effort we put out in the fourth quarter was the difference.”
Jarod Lung led the Cardinals with 16 points. Paul Nunez finished with nine, followed by six by Owen Weiss and Nate Hill. Colton Brown finished with four and Hayden Schnake had two.
Following the opening round victory, Miller struggled to get their offense rolling as they would combine for just 64 points in the next two games after falling in the quarterfinal round 83-32 and then losing to Morrisville in the fifth place bracket, 58-32.
Miller improves to 6-5 for the season as they will host the 2024 Miller Invitational next week as the top seed. They took on Gloria Deo on Tuesday and will be back in action Thursday. The tournament will wrap up Saturday.