Tribe eyeing history

BLOOMFIELD, Mo. -- It has been a long time since the Kennett Indians won the Bloomfield Christmas Tournament. How long has it been? Try 27 years.

The last time it happened, Ronald Reagan was president, the No. 1 movie in America was Tootsie and Kennett basketball coach Jim Vaughan was just a sixth-grader.

But thanks to the Tribe's 58-36 rout of the Portageville Bulldogs Tuesday night, Kennett is one victory away from winning its first BCT championship since 1982.

"We just played hard, you know?" Kennett junior Andy Lack said. "We gave good effort the whole time. We knew how rough it would be just trying to get there. That was just our main goal. (Wednesday) we've just got to go out and take care of (business)."

It will also be the first time that the Tribe (7-3) has played for the Bloomfield title since 1991, before most of Kennett's players were even born.

"That's something we've kind of talked about all week -- not trying to look ahead but something that was going to be really, really special (is putting) our name in the finals of this tournament," said Vaughan. "Our kids, they've had a focus. It's special for us to be there right now."

That focus showed Tuesday as Kennett routed the defending Class 2 state champions for the second time in less than two weeks.

"We knew they were going to come even harder than they did last time," Lack said. "We did not take them for granted. ... We just went out there, played hard and it worked out for us."

After a back-and-forth first quarter, the Tribe scored the first eight points of the second period to take a 22-15 lead and never trailed again.

Fred Treadwell's basket with 6:13 remaining before halftime stopped the run, but Lack's second 3-pointer sparked a 7-0 spurt to end the half as Kennett took a 29-17 lead to the locker room.

"What I wrote on my dry-erase board right before starting lineups was 'Rebound,'" said Vaughan. "That was our biggest key tonight because that's what Portageville does so well is they attack the offensive glass. They've got some guys that can make plays and make shots, but they go get it.

"Not so much in the first quarter, but in the second quarter we held them to two points. I thought that the biggest key was that we had possessions that were one-and-done for them."

Another key first-half factor for the Tribe was 3-point shooting, as Lack and Cameron Wallace each knocked down a pair of triples to spark their team.

"That's something we established offensively," Vaughan said. "We passed up some 3s to move the ball and then we took the next one that was available. I thought we did a good job of being patient of what perimeter shot we took; therefore we took it with confidence and we established the perimeter game."

Once Kennett got ahead, its defense made sure it stayed ahead Tuesday, limiting the 'Dawgs to just 21 points over the final three quarters.

"We knew they'd come out and play well right away," said Vaughan. "They were going to be energized and wanted to play better this time. We established a little bit of a perimeter game, they let us in the defense and it gave us some momentum.

"We got up and defended -- again, we held them to two points in the second quarter -- and it kind of set the tone for the way the rest of the game was going to go."

Dwight Usry's basket with 3:23 left in the third quarter gave the Indians their first 20-point lead of the night (41-21) and Fred Garmon's bucket with 52 seconds left in the game made it a 58-33 lead, Kennett's biggest lead of the game.

Wallace led the Tribe with 15 points on the night, while Garmon added 14 and Lack finished with 10.

"He comes to play every night," Wallace said of Garmon. "He leads this team, he makes good passes, scores a bunch of points and rebounds. He does everything."

For the tournament, Garmon is averaging 15 points per game and has been in double figures all three games.

"That is the character that Fred Garmon has," said Vaughan. "He's the general on the floor and he knows the game of basketball. He understands his teammates and his teammates understand him."

Treadwell paced Portageville with 12 points.

The Indians will face defending tournament champion Bernie (10-0) tonight at 7:30 p.m. as they seek their first Bloomfield Christmas Tournament championship since 1982.

"Bernie's just good," Vaughan said. "Bernie plays with so much energy. They play so hard. They step up in games like this. ... They are undefeated for a reason. They're a good basketball team, they're a competitive group of kids and they shoot the ball well."