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 Staff photo by Mike Buhler Kennett's Randrick Caruthers (right) drives against Portageville's Tevin Walker during Friday's Bootheel Conference boys' basketball game at Kennett High School. [Click to enlarge] |
With their team up by 20 points late in the third quarter Friday night, the Kennett Indians student section began directing that chant at the Portageville Bulldogs Friday night.
And they were right.
Staff photo by Mike BuhlerPortageville's Fernando Minnis (left) guards Kennett's Jay Shavers during Friday's Bootheel Conference boys' basketball game at Kennett High School. [Click to enlarge] |
"We had a focus tonight," Kennett coach Jim Vaughan said. "I could see a difference in our kids before we started this basketball game tonight. We were in the locker room talking before the game and there was a different look in their eye tonight. There was a seriousness, there was a focus and there was a true desire tonight to prove something to anybody who doesn't think that Kennett is ready to rise up a little bit this year."
The Indians (4-3, 3-0 Bootheel) used a 15-0 run spread over the first and second quarters to take control of Friday's contest, getting points from six different players over the spurt to go up 21-7 less than a minute into the second period.
"We're a team that's big on everybody else getting their points," Kennett junior Andy Lack, who hit a 3-pointer to ignite the run, said. "We have great point guards -- (Randrick Caruthers) and Fred (Garmon) -- that are going to look for everyone on the court, no matter what. They're not selfish or anything like that."
Vaughan echoed Lack's thoughts about Caruthers and Garmon.
"You can't beat having those two guys on the floor at the end of a game with a lead (with) the knowledge they have and the skill they have with the basketball in their hands," said Vaughan.
Portageville got back-to-back baskets from Fred Treadwell to stop the run and cut the lead to 10 points (21-11) but came no closer the rest of the way.
"You could tell a little bit early in the first half -- there were some of them were bent over on knee -- and we're bringing in a fresh wave of guys," said Vaughan. "We didn't sub like we usually do in the second half. I really think that that is attributed to how gooder shape we're in right now by playing and practicing the way that we do."
Jimmy Gooden scored the first four points of the second half to push the Tribe's lead to 18 (39-21) and a pair of Cameron Wallace free throws pushed the lead to 45-24 with 3:17 left in the third period.
"It was a pretty good statement game for us," said Vaughan. "This is the first time I've beaten Portageville since I've been here at Kennett. There were big time conference implications on that game. ... There's no doubt they're a quality ballteam and a well-coached team.
"For our kids to come out there and play as hard as we did -- and want to guard like we guarded tonight -- I can't say enough about our kids tonight."
Wallace paced the Indians with 15 points, while Garmon added 11 points and six assists, Jay Shavers chipped in 10 points off the bench and Caruthers finished just shy of a triple-double with 10 points, nine rebounds, eight assists and five steals.
"It seems like that whatever needs to be done at the time, Randrick has that innate ability to do that," Vaughan said. "He is a complete basketball player. There's no doubt that he's the guy that we look to. There's no doubt that he's a floor leader out there."
Isaac Ray pumped in 15 points to lead the Bulldogs.
Kennett is off until Saturday, December 26 when it takes on Puxico at the Bloomfield Christmas Tournament. If the seeds hold, the Tribe and Portageville will see each other again in the tournament's semifinals on December 29.
"If we (play) like we did tonight, we'll be all right," Gooden said. "We'll win in some way."
Notes: The Bulldogs won the junior varsity contest 54-35, outscoring Kennett 18-3 in the final period. Aaron Caraway paced the Indians with 12 points. ... Friday's win represents the second time this season that Kennett has defeated a defending state champion. The Tribe defeated Arkansas Class 5A state champ Greene County Tech 70-46 on December 5 at Jonesboro.
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Is it too much to ask to see a freaking box score? No box for football. No box for basketball. Come on dude. You can do better.
One must note that Mike is the only person writing sports stories during the most demanding sports time of the year. As a fellow editor, I know how tedious tabbing out box scores can be, so time is likely a factor. He has zero help and has to report on every area game alone.
I, for one, would rather have a box than an article because of my statistical preferences, but the reality is that the paper must be filled with articles and not boxes, so Mike has to make decisions on how to use his time.
Brandon,
Come on dude. I have Journalism degree as well. It is called a template. Takes just a few minutes to input the stats. Bottom line, this is terrible coverage. A stat box every now and then would be nice. I don't care if he is the only guy or not. Kennett should get the most coverage in the paper. The surrounding schools are secondary. There are hardly ever any advance stories. None during football season. With Friday night games, there MUST be an advance or practice updates. Something. Features would be nice to.
Templates are great for the printed page, but they don't necessarily translate to the web, which means that he would have to tab out a brand new box independent of the one that might appear in the newspaper. I've used this web editing template for my blog on here and it's not friendly with regard to convenience. It's just one big text box that doesn't allow you to gauge line breaks, so it would take multiple preview tries to hammer out a readable box that doesn't have awkward line breaks. It's not like using InDesign or Page Maker where what you see is what you get.
I'm just trying to be realistic. Though you might say it doesn't matter if he's the only guy or not, it does. It's tough to write a feature when you're running all over the place reporting on games and gathering scores with ZERO help. The guy takes his own pictures, writes the stories, edits them on the web and also does extra reporting on his own budget. It would be different if this were just the Kennett paper, but it's not. It's hard to write advances for high school basketball games when everyone in the area is playing on a given night and none of the coaches return calls or submit stats. You can only report the information you have.
So you are telling me that a page designer at the DDD can't go out and find a code of a box score template? And it is not just basketball. Advances for football would have been nice too.
I agree about football.
To my knowledge, the DDD doesn't have page designers. All section editors likely do pagination if you're talking about the printed product. As far as the online stuff, this website is just a cookie cutter and allows for very little creativity.