Sweet 100: Tribe wins conference title as Vaughan gets career win No. 100

Staff photo by Mike Buhler Kennett's Jay Shavers (12) shoots over South Pemiscot's Jordan Carter during the first half of Tuesday's Bootheel Conference boys' basketball game at Steele. Shavers recorded a double-double with 10 points and 11 steals in the Tribe's 102-56 win. [Click to enlarge]

First of all, the Tribe won the Bootheel Conference Championship Tuesday night with a 102-56 win over the South Pemiscot Bulldogs. On top of that, Tuesday's win was the 100th for Kennett head coach Jim Vaughn and it was the first time Kennett cracked 100 points this season.

"It was a night of motivation for our whole program," Vaughan said. "This conference championship was one of our goals. This makes three years running that these (juniors) have not lost a regular season conference game, so it's a pretty special event for them."

Staff photo by Mike Buhler Kennett's Fred Garmon (top center) shoots a layup in traffic during the second half of Tuesday's Bootheel Conference boys' basketball game at Steele. Kennett won 102-56 to lock up the Bootheel Conference regular season championship. [Click to enlarge]

Said junior Andy Lack: "We went into it thinking it's just another ballgame -- got to play hard and compete. We never won the conference in the (regular) season so we knew that was a big deal. We went into it playing hard and it worked out good for us."

Kennett's Randrick Caruthers set the tempo Tuesday when he kicked off the scoring by stealing the ball at halfcourt and had a breakaway dunk. South Pem answered back with back-to-back field goals by Tyler Thompson and Jordan Carter.

The remainder of the first quarter was nip and tuck and ended with Kennett's Dwight Usry coming into the game to add on six points in the last 1:10 of the quarter.

"I think our slow start was absolutely attributed to our lack of physical toughness and South Pem's toughness," said Vaughan. "Loose balls, rebounding efforts -- the basketball got by us on a dribble often in the first half. That was just unacceptable. ... As the game went on, it jarred us enough to wake us up and we competed hard the rest of the way through."

South Pem came out in the second quarter giving Kennett a good fight with the two teams matching basket for basket. With 3:45 left in the half, Kennett started to pull away with with some big 3-pointers by Lack and Cameron Wallace and some solid shooting and defense from Jay Shavers.

"He gave us a nice, nice push in the first half with his (Shavers) defensive effort," said Vaughan.

Going into the half, Kennett led 52-34.

"We started off sluggish and we had to pick it up," said Usry. "When we went in at halftime, coach gave us a good speech and we picked up the intensity."

Kennett came out red hot in the second half with Fred Garmon and Usry leading the way. Both players contributed greatly on both sides of the ball and by the end of the third quarter Kennett had opened up a 32-point lead (81-49).

"It feels good," Usry said. "We worked really hard to get here and we're finally here."

The Tribe continued to roll in the fourth with tough defense and a total team offensive attack.

Shavers stood out on defense with 11 steals, while on the offensive side six players got into double figures.

Usry led Kennett with 18 points, while Caruthers added 17, Wallace chipped in 14, Garmon tossed in 12, Gooden pumped in 11 and Shavers finished with 10 for the double-double.

"To have six do it, that means again we're looking for open people all the time," Vaughan said. "I don't know what our assist total was, but I bet you we had a bundle of them."

This Friday Kennett will have maybe its biggest test of the season as it takes on the Sikeston Bulldogs.

"It's going to be a rough game," Lack said. "We've got to toughen up a little bit. We've got to play harder than we did tonight, I think. But if we keep knocking down shots, I think we'll be all right."

Kennett is ranked seventh in Class 3, while Sikeston is ranked fourth in Class 4.

Notes: Kennett also won the junior varsity contest. ... Sikeston also won Tuesday night, defeating Farmington 82-53. ... Sikeston coach Gregg Hollifield previously coached at Kennett from 1995-1997.

Holcomb 59, Gideon 49
At Gideon, the Hornets improved to 2-0 in Tri-County Conference play with a win over the host Bulldogs.

Jamie Massey led Holcomb with 14 points, while Zach Williams added 12 and Steven Kirkpatrick finished with 11.

The Hornets also won the jayvee contest 52-40.