Naylor hits nine 3s to deny Lady Tribe fifth place

Staff photo by Mike Buhler Naylor's Moriah Goodrum (left) and Kennett's Alexandra Brown go for a rebound during Wednesday's fifth-place game at the Lady Royals Christmas Classic. [Click to enlarge]

However, Naylor didn't have that problem Wednesday, going on a 12-0 run to take control of a close game and take a 64-48 victory over the Kennett Lady Indians in the fifth-place game at the LRCC.

"The girls are starting just now to figure out how hard they've got to play," Naylor coach Gene Deckard said. "The last two games our Achilles' heel has been the second quarter. We figured if we could play through the second quarter and put some effort in it, that it was going to be all right in the second half."

With the scored knotted at 12 early in the second period, the Lady Eagles (4-2) ran off 12 straight points, taking a 24-12 lead on Andrea Sullivan's 3-pointer midway through the quarter.

Kennett (9-2) cut the lead to 28-20 on a pair of Sharika Walls free throws with 7.9 seconds remaining in the first half, but Holly Deckard canned a 3 with one second left to push the lead back into double digits, where it stayed the rest of the way.

After earning the second seed, the Lady Tribe's sixth-place finish was not what coach Casey Bunting had wanted.

"Our showing this week wasn't quite what we had hoped for," said Bunting. "Getting through the Christmas slump is sometimes difficult."

Naylor also had a huge day behind the arc, draining nine treys and often halting a Lady Indians run with a key 3.

"We're still young as far as the season," coach Deckard said. "That was only our sixth game. The girls are getting smarter with each game. They're starting to play more as a team and figuring out what they've got to do. We've got some free-throw shooters -- we've got some shooters.

"If we take care of the ball and (get) open...I don't know what percentage of 3s we hit for the tournament, but it had to be up there pretty (high) for a high school team."

Jerica Wheeler led Kennett with 15 points, while Alexandra Brown added 10 in the loss.

The Lady Tribe won't have to wait long for a rematch with Naylor. Kennett hosts the Lady Eagles on January 4, the team's first game back from the holiday break.

"They should provide a challenging game for us coming off the break," said Bunting. "I think we can match up with Naylor better than we did tonight -- but it will boil down to which team want a W more and which team is willing to work for it the hardest."

Despite the less-than-hoped-for finish, Bunting still sees some positives out of the tournament for the Lady Tribe.

"The benefit of this tournament is that we face some strong competition the we don't normally see during the year. The change in tempo is good for us."

The LRCC also showed Bunting some areas that her squad needs to improve on.

"We'll have several days of uninterrupted practice to work on some areas of weakness that showed up these past few games," the coach said.