Three for the money: Naylor hits 11 treys to rally past Lady Tribe

Staff photo by Mike Buhler Kennett's Jerica Wheeler (center) shoots between Naylor defenders Ericka Engleman (left) and Andrea Sullivan during Monday's girls' basketball game at Kennett High School. [Click to enlarge]

The Naylor Lady Eagles drained 11 3-pointers and rallied from a five-point deficit in the final period to take a 48-42 win over the Lady Tribe Monday night at Kennett High School.

"I didn't know we had 11 3s," Kennett coach Gene Deckard said. "Really, I thought our 3s were a little off percentage-wise than what we shot in the Christmas tournament, but it seemed like we hit a 3 when we needed it."

Staff photo by Mike Buhler Kennett's Veronica Amos (center) drives around a Naylor defender during Monday's girls' basketball game at Kennett High School. [Click to enlarge]

The loss was Kennett's second in a row. The Lady Indians (9-3) also lost to Naylor 64-48 in the fifth-place game at the Lady Royals Christmas Classic on December 23.

"They can shoot," Kennett coach Casey Bunting said. "That's one thing that we've worked on covering on the outside -- we just have get better at that...adjusting from our inside game to outside on the defense, closing out and picking up somebody."

Naylor (7-3) trailed 38-33 entering the fourth quarter, but scored the first eight points of the final frame to take the lead.

Moriah Goodrum's basket made it a 38-35 game with 7:05 to go, then back-to-back treys by Andrea Sullivan gave the Lady Eagles a 41-38 lead.

After a Mackenzie Carr basket cut the Lady Tribe's deficit to 41-40, Sullivan drained her third triple of the quarter to push the lead back to four, then Kendal Rogers hit a field goal to put Naylor up 46-40.

Deckard was impressed with his team's performance in the final period, when the Lady Eagles outscored Kennett 15-4.

"We knew that they would be looking for us," said Deckard. "I think we were the last game they played before Christmas. They had (12 days) to steam about it. Coming in here on their home court, we knew it was going to be a battle."

It was indeed, as the game featured eight lead changes and five ties.

Despite the loss, Bunting saw positives in her team's performance against a Naylor squad that has traditionally been a small-school power in southeast Missouri.

"It's always good to play strong competition," said Bunting. "Most of the time you can only benefit from it. We did some good things tonight. We played better tonight against them than we did the first time we played them."

Jerica Wheeler paced Kennett with 16 points, while Veronica Amos added 12.

Goodrum's game-high 17 points led the Lady Eagles, while Sullivan added 15 and Holly Deckard finished with 14.

The Lady Tribe is off until Monday when it travels to Dexter.

Notes: In the junior varsity contest, Kennett won 13-11 in overtime. The two schools played a two-quarter game, then went to a two-minute OT when the game finished tied at 11. ... The Lady Indians' next home game is two weeks from tonight (January 19) when they host Bootheel Conference foe Campbell.