Tribe holds off host 'Cats to make semis

BLOOMFIELD, Mo. -- It has been 27 years since the Kennett Indians won the Bloomfield Christmas Tournament. The Tribe seems determined not to wait 28.

The third-seeded Indians raced out to a 19-point lead in the second quarter, then weathered a furious comeback to hold off the No. 6 Bloomfield Wildcats 70-65 in the quarterfinals of the tournament here Monday night.

Kennett (6-3) will face second-seeded Portageville in the late semifinal this evening at 7:30 p.m. The Bulldogs earned the matchup with Kennett by downing No. 7 Hayti 70-68 in overtime in Monday's late game.

"They're tough," Kennett coach Jim Vaughan said of the Wildcats after the game. "They're going to be tough in their league and they're going to have a chance to win a district title. I give a lot of credit to them because they played their tails off. We did build a big lead early and they punched right back. We were just able to sustain late and did some things right toward the end of the game."

The Tribe led 36-17 late in the second quarter and took a 12-point lead to the locker room, but Bloomfield chipped away in the third period, trimming the lead to 38-31 midway through the quarter before Fred Garmon's three-point play and Jay Shavers' 3-pointer pushed the lead back to 13.

However, the Wildcats were not done, closing the third on a 10-0 run then adding a basket to open the fourth quarter to make it a 44-43 game before Kennett righted the ship.

"We just kept fighting," said Kennett senior Jimmy Gooden, "and played hard."

Vaughan attributes Bloomfield's comeback to its dominance of the glass in the third period.

"That was one of our keys tonight was to keep them off the offensive glass," Vaughan said. "They just go do it and they go do it relentlessly. (Leighton) Hensley, (Derrick) Caldwell and (Seth) Hill went to the boards hard -- and Garrett Rice. They go and they do it (wholeheartedly). Not enough times did we match that."

Gooden -- who scored all seven of his points in the final frame -- sparked Kennett's fourth-quarter stand, grabbing an offensive rebound and converting it into a three-point play to give the Tribe some breathing room.

"Anytime you challenge Jimmy, he answers the bell," said Vaughan. "He came back out and he was our senior leader in the fourth quarter, no doubt. I think he got us started with...a stickback and one and then he did things right the rest of the way."

Gooden credits his team's defense for Monday's win.

"We had a lot of guys come off the bench, stepped up and played hard defense," he said. "They made sure to try to keep the ball out of (Bloomfield's) hands."

Dwight Usry led Kennett with 19 points on the night, while Fred Garmon added 18. Both players' totals were season highs.

"He got out of the gates really, really well," said Vaughan of Usry. "Rebounding-wise, he's got so stinking much energy. His ticker just never stops. He was huge for us early -- he was a big involvement in the nice run that we had early -- and in the fourth quarter he was absolutely one of our big key components in keeping our level of energy up."

Hensley paced the Wildcats with 30 points, while Hill chipped in 11 and Rice finished with 10.

"He took over the whole dang night," Vaughan said of Hensley. "We didn't want him to touch the ball. ... We wanted to force him away from the lane. He's just that good of an athlete."

With Monday's victory, the Tribe finds itself one win away from going to the finals of the Bloomfield Christmas Tournament for the first time since 1991.

"I am ready for it," said Kennett junior Randrick Caruthers. "Hopefully we'll make it to the championship."