FORREST CITY -- El Dorado senior Daniel Gafford turned in a triple-double Saturday night to lead the Wildcats to a 72-69 victory over North Little Rock in the finals of the 20th annual Rumble on the Ridge at Mustang Arena.
Gafford, a 6-11 post player who has signed to play for the Arkansas Razorbacks, had 18 points, 28 rebounds and 13 blocked shots.
The Wildcats became only the second team to repeat as tournament champions. Last year, they beat the host Forrest City Mustangs in the finals. Southwind, Tenn., is the only other team with back-to-back Rumble on the Ridge titles.
El Dorado senior guard Czar Perry was named the tournament's Most Valuable Player after finishing with 36 points in the finals and averaging more than 30 points per game for the tournament.
El Dorado advanced to the finals by defeating Little Rock Parkview 74-72 in Friday's semifinals after opening with a first-round victory over Blytheville.
"We were so emotionally drained after the win over Parkview, and don't get me wrong, we really felt like that was the championship game," El Dorado Coach Gary Simmons said. "We have been waiting and wanting to get up on that step with Parkview for a long time, and we did it and I could tell today our guys were just a little tired."
Both North Little Rock and El Dorado started slowly, with each team missing their first seven shots from the field.
When the shots began to fall, it was North Little Rock -- which won the Rumble on the Ridge title in 2013 and lost in the 2014 finals to Forrest City -- that took a 7-0 lead. El Dorado tied the game at 13-13 and led 15-13 after one quarter.
Both teams battled through three ties and three lead changes in the second quarter, which ended with the Wildcats taking a 39-31 lead into the half.
Three more ties in the second half and three more lead changes finally gave way to El Dorado taking the lead for good with 6:25 left in the fourth quarter at 56-54 on a dunk by Gafford. El Dorado pushed its lead to nine points twice in the final five minutes before holding on for the three-point victory.
"It is sweet to win this tournament twice, especially with the seniors I have who are just incredible young men," Simmons said. "If we go home and stay hungry and think that this is good but not as good as it could be and get better, especially defensively, I think we can go a long way."
North Little Rock led 51-50 at the end of the third quarter.
Sophomore forward Collin Moore finished with 28 points and was named to the all-tournament second team for North Little Rock, while senior guard Jarvis Ricks added 20 points and was named to the first team. Deion Dobbins chipped in 17 points and was named to the first team.
North Little Rock played its way into the finals by defeating Memphis Mitchell in the first round and Forrest City in the semifinals.
Little Rock Parkview finished third by defeating Forrest City in the consolation game 65-55 while Conway downed Memphis Mitchell 55-45 to take fifth and Blytheville finished seventh with a victory over Raleigh-Egypt, Tenn.
Sports on 11/27/2016