By Mike Hutchens, UC Schools Communications Director
Welcome back, Will Kail.
Playing for the first time in four weeks after suffering a broken hand, Kail poured in a career-high 22 points and keyed a pair of second-half surges to lift Union City to a 62-46 victory over Gibson County on Friday night.
The triumph snapped a four-game Tornado losing streak and gave them a win in their District 14-2A opener.
Kail made consecutive 3-pointers during a run of 10 straight UC points in the third quarter that gave his team the lead for good, then had nine markers – including another triple – in the fourth period when the Twisters outscored GC 17-6 to pull away.
Union City’s girls cut a 13-point deficit to five during a fourth-quarter flurry but dropped the opener 61-49.
The Lady Pioneers put four players in double figures to offset a game-high 28 points from Sh’Nyla Moss and drop the Tornadoes to 9-10 overall.
UC will continue district play with a pair of games next week – playing at Westview on Tuesday before then celebrating homecoming on Friday with a game against Trenton Peabody.
UC 62, GC 46 (B)
The Tornadoes outscored Gibson County 32-14 over the game’s final 15 minutes to improve to 8-10 in all games.
Brayden Marshall (12), Ayden Lewis (11), and Hollister Johnson (10) joined Kail in twin digits, each providing timely offense.
Kail finished with four of Union City’s seven 3-pointers and had 17 of his markers over the final two frames.
The Twisters spotted GC the game’s first five points, then led for essentially the rest of the first half.
Johnson took a nice feed from Marshall and converted inside to cap a 20-5 flurry and give the Tornadoes their largest first-half lead at 20-10.
The Pioneers rallied and briefly overtook UC (32-30) three minutes into the third quarter. But Marshall began the winners’ deciding run with a bucket before Kail hit twice from long distance to put Union City in front for good. Lewis tallied on a drive to the bucket to cap the surge.
The Tornadoes held Gibson County without a point for the first 5:25 of the final frame while expanding their lead. Kail drained his final triple and converted an old-fashioned 3-point play to finish a run of 14 unanswered points.
GC 61, UC 49 (G)
Moss bounced back from a rare off-night on Tuesday when she was limited to just three points with another stellar outing that included nine 2-point field goals, one trey, and seven free throws.
Unfortunately, the Lady Tornadoes failed to convert several makeable shots from in close and fell against one of the expected district frontrunners.
GC improved to 15-5 overall.
A slow start offensively put UC in an immediate hole as it managed just two 3-point field goals – by Addy Launder and Alli McMillan – in the first quarter when it trailed 18-9.
It was 29-21 at halftime after the Twister girls trailed by 13 at one point.
Union City was within 40-33 after three and shaved another deuce off that deficit in the early stages of the fourth quarter before Gibson County re-established control. The Lady Pioneers made 12-of-18 free throws over the final eight minutes.
Moss, who made 9-of-15 2-point field goals, also had a team-best seven rebounds.