Tribe wears down Hayti

Before the season, Jim Vaughan spoke very highly of his team's depth.

Tuesday night, the Kennett Indians put that depth on display, placing 12 players in the scoring column as they pulled away for a 75-41 win over Hayti in a Bootheel Conference game at Kennett High School.

"That's what we're going to preach continually all year is how hard can you constantly go?" Vaughan said. "We're preaching three minutes of hard basketball at a time, (then we) get fresh legs. We played 11 kids in the first half and everybody contributed. We've got that depth, we've got that potential to be able to wear people down and keep our guys fresh."

Kennett (3-3, 2-0 Bootheel) led 33-21 at the half, but scored the first six points of the third quarter to open things up and start to pull away.

"We did it defensively -- we did it by getting deflections, by getting tips, by chasing the basketball down and making them hurry up," said Vaughan. "That's got to define us all the time."

Keenan Williams sank a free throw with 3:24 left in the third to cut the Kennett lead to 43-28, but the Tribe closed the quarter on a 10-0 run to break the game open.

Jay Shavers then drained a 3-pointer with less than five minutes to go to make it 68-37 and enforce the 30-point mercy rule.

"Defense was the key (tonight)," Kennett senior Dwight Usry said. "We played good defense."

That defense was strong from the start, as the Indians held Hayti for a six-minute stretch of the first quarter to open up a 21-3 lead.

Seven players scored during that opening run, led by Fred Garmon's seven points.

"We're a very unselfish team," said Usry. "We know how to share the ball. We do what we've got to do."

Hayti (3-3, 1-2) began to chip away in the second period, cutting the lead to eight (27-19) on Doriyon West's basket with 2:06 left before halftime before the Tribe finished the half on a 6-2 spurt.

"We talked about the second quarter at halftime," Vaughan said. "We talked about things we didn't do. We interjected the first quarter (on) what a great start we got -- we jumped out 21-3 to start the game -- then (Hayti) slowed the game down. They dictated tempo a little bit in the second quarter and that wasn't in our favor."

Garmon paced Kennett with 12 points on the evening, while Jimmy Gooden chipped in 10.

West's 13 points led Hayti.

The Tribe is back in action Friday when it hosts Portageville in a key Bootheel Conference contest. The winner of Friday's game will likely be in the driver's seat for the conference's regular-season title and the top seed in the league tourney.

"We've got our work cut out for us Friday night," said Vaughan. "I think rebounding is going to be a key in that game. That's what I told the kids -- we can't be satisfied with our rebounding effort tonight because it's got to be that much better Friday night."

Even after a big win Tuesday, don't expect Kennett to rest on its laurels as Friday approaches.

"We're doing good right now," Shavers said. "We could play a little harder, do a little better on defense and rebound better -- we've got to rebound better if we want this win against Portageville."

Notes: Kennett won the junior varsity contest 39-31 behind 13 points from Collin Smith and 10 from Cameron Harper. ... Portageville and the Indians may also meet at the Bloomfield Christmas Tournament later this month, as Kennett is the third seed and Portageville is No. 2. If the seeds hold, the two teams will face off in the semifinals on December 29.