Grand opening: Lady Tribe begins season by routing Portageville

GIDEON, Mo. -- Over the last few years, Portageville has been a constant thorn in the side of the Kennett Lady Indians.

Tuesday evening, the Lady Tribe took care of that thorn, dominating the Lady Bulldogs in the season opener to take a 57-31 win in the first round of the Bulldog Classic.

"It was nice to beat Portageville," Kennett coach Casey Bunting said. "This is the first time we've beat them since I've been here. It just goes to show that the past four years we've been working on fundamentals and how to do things right."

Junior point guard Jerica Wheeler echoed her coach's sentiments.

"It feels great to finally come out there and finally beat them," said Wheeler. "I think it's a big confidence booster for us, especially being our first game."

The Lady Tribe took control of the game in the second quarter. After a Katelyn Kellams 3-pointer cut Kennett's lead to 13-10, the Lady Indians ran off the game's next 10 points -- six from forward Brittney Williams -- to open a double-digit lead.

"(Last year) was my first year back (in Kennett) and getting beat by Portageville last year made me want to come out and try to play hard and beat them this year," Williams said.

After a pair of Janika McIntyre free throws stopped the run, center Caroline Shetley scored the game's next five points as Kennett took a 30-12 lead to the locker room.

Fifteen of the Lady Tribe's 17 points in the pivotal second period came from its frontcourt.

"We've got bigs this year," Bunting said. "We've got bigs and we're going to use them. I was pleased with how our girls worked. We still need to work on blocking out a little bit, getting after the ball and bettering our conditioning, but our bigs are key for us right now."

Kennett did not let up in the second half, taking a 42-19 with just over two minutes to go in the third quarter on Sharika Walls' basket, then pushing the lead to 57-27 -- the biggest of the game -- on Whitney Callaway's free throws with 64 seconds left in the game.

"We pressed the whole game," said Bunting. "That's something that we had to do because we need to develop that skill. But one thing that we're working on is stopping their offense -- not just Portageville's, but any team we play -- we want to be able to stop their offense. We want to pressure them so much that they're uncomfortable with the ball."

Walls led the Lady Indians with 12 points, while Veronica Amos added 10 to pace a balanced attack.

"I was real pleased to see our scorers," said Bunting. "It was spread out across the board. That's something great. That's indicative of a good ballclub when you don't just have one or two scorers, but you have the whole team that can put some points on the board for us."

Kaitlyn Nowlin led the Lady Bulldogs with 10 points.

Kennett will take on South Pemiscot in semifinal play Friday night, with the winner playing for the championship Saturday night at 7 p.m. Last year, Portageville defeated the Lady Tribe to win the title.

"It's a big win because it seems like every year they've been able to come out and dominate us," Wheeler said of Portageville. "But this year, (it is different). We have girls that can come in and we all flow together. That's what makes this a lot easier. We have great team chemistry. We love to be with each other on and off the court."