Marion- An undefeated season is still going into 2024 for the East Burke girls basketball team after winning the McDowell Christmas Invitational tournament for a second consecutive season by defeating the host Lady Titans 61-48.

This is East Burke’s 33rd win in 99 overall meetings with the former Northwestern 4A Conference rival, including last year’s 53-52 win.

The Lady Cavaliers stayed in front the entire time, limiting McDowell to six points early and building a 34-20 halftime advantage.

One of the major elements of the win was the performance of sophomore wing Kara Brinkley scoring a new career-high of 30 points, including four 3-pointers, and it just took practice.

“We practiced what we needed to do in this game, and we will practice for our next games,” said Brinkley, averaging 15.5 points per game this season.

Junior leading scorer Braelyn Stilwell (20.7 PPG) managed 18 points a day after crossing the 1000 career points mark and could pick up most of every loose ball.

The Lady Cavalier senior trio of Ally Moore, Kassie Turner, and Kamiah Lawing also contributed to the win with Moore scoring eight points.

Boys 3rd Place: East Burke 46, Avery County 44

Sophomore Owen Hartmann was able to find the right opportunity to force a steal and score a layup to tie with the Vikings in the last minute of the game.

Junior Sylas Coleman followed by hitting both free throws to give the Cavaliers just their third win of the season.

“I just read the play, I just saw that pass and took it,” said Hartmann.

In retrospect, the last matchup East Burke had with Avery County was in the 2014 Freedom Christmas Invitational, won by the Cavaliers 55-54 off a winning basket by another former short-sized guard Jonas Bradshaw.

East Burke held the lead at the end of the first quarter (14-12) and at halftime (28-25) until Avery County stole the 35-32 lead going into the fourth quarter.

Hartmann scored five of his nine total points in the last period of play along with Coleman and Barger Shook getting some key baskets and Cannon Morrison making a free-throw.

Coleman and Shook each led East Burke with 16 points each with Zack Crawford and Dautry Ragle each adding two points.

The Cavaliers resume Catawba Valley 2A Athletic Conference play on January 5th at home vs. Bandys.