County finals tonight: NP at MV

The New Palestine Dragons and Mt. Vernon Marauders will face off for the 2011-12 Hancock County basketball championships tonight at Mt. Vernon after both the Dragon and Marauder boys and girls teams won their semifinal games today.

The championship games will be broadcast live by HancockCountySports.com

First, the tourney rundown:

Boys
Semifinals
*New Palestine 70, Greenfield-Central 24. Brandon Jonas leads Dragons with 13 points. Justin Ikerd scores 12. 
Mt. Vernon 66, *Eastern Hancock 51. MV led 38-18 at halftime and 54-37 after three.
Greenfield-Central (0-8) vs. Eastern Hancock (5-4), 6:30 p.m. (consolation, MV auxiliary gym)
New Palestine (7-1) vs. Mt. Vernon (5-2), 6:30 p.m. (championship, MV main gym)

Girls
Semifinals
*New Palestine 57, Greenfield-Central 49. Dragons jump out to early eight-point lead and never trail. Bethany Murrell 17 points, Lauren Tieman 16 points, Abby Seifert 10 pts/9 reb for NP. LaRae Cruz 20 points for G-C.
Mt. Vernon 67, *Eastern Hancock 18. Marauders improve to 9-2 with the victory.
Greenfield-Central (7-5) vs. Eastern Hancock (8-3), 8 p.m. (consolation, MV auxiliary gym)
New Palestine (5-6) vs. Mt. Vernon (9-2), 8 p.m. (championship, MV main gym)

Tonight's notes
In the girls tournament, Mt. Vernon will be going for its third straight county title -- trying to join the 2006-09 Greenfield-Central team in turning that feat. MV has won a record four county championships so far -- the first two (2003-04 and 2004-05) and the last two. It's a rematch of last year's county final, when MV beat NP 55-32. The Marauders also won a 49-31 decision at NP on Dec. 17. This will mark the third consecutive year that MV and NP will have played each other twice in a season -- in both the regular season and in the county tourney. New Palestine is looking for its second championship, with its previous title coming in 2005-06. MV has won all four tournament meetings. MV"s Julie Shelton is the winningest coach in the nine-year history of the tournament, with four championships.

In the boys tournament, Mt. Vernon and New Palestine will meet in the final for the fourth time -- they previously met in consecutive years from 2006-07 through 2008-09. The two schools have split the last seven championships -- NP is the defending champion, and also won in 2004-05, 2005-06 and 2007-08. MV won the title in 2006-07 and in back-to-back years in 2008-09 and 2009-10. This is also the seventh time in nine years they've met in the county tournament. They have split the first six meetings. NP's Adam Barton and MV's Steve Lynch have each won three county tourneys as head coaches, tying for the lead.