Girls kick off Bootheel Conference Tournament

Staff photo by Aaron Lynn Kennett's Brittney Williams (42) goes for a shot underneath the basket against Hayti defenders in Wednesday night's opening round game [Click to enlarge]

MALDEN, Mo.-The Girls Bootheel Conference Tournament kicked off Wednesday night in Malden. The first round saw Hayti vs. Kennett, Caruthersville vs. Senath-Hornersville and Campbell vs. Malden. Kennett, SHHS and Malden all took wins to advance to the semifinals. The first two games of the night were won early with the two winning teams scoring a combined 113-points and the two losing teams combining for 14-points. The final game was closer with Malden leading by eight-points at the half but, with campbell only fielding five players, the Green Wave were able to pull away for good in the second half. Portageville advanced to the semifinal round by way of a forfeit.

Hayti vs. Kennett

The Kennett Lady Indians were in total control in their game against Hayti to take a 60-3 victory. The Lady Indians had a 12-0 lead three-minutes into the game with eight of those points coming from turnovers created by their full-court press. Kennett's Veronica Amos came up with three of those early steals. As the game went on, the Lady Indians stayed in the drivers seat to take the win.

"Tonight was good for us because we were able to get our girls out there after some time off," said Kennett coach Casey Bunting. "It was also a good morale booster because we were able to get all of the girls some playing time."

Kennett had two players to get into double digits in scoring. Caroline Shetley led with 13-points and Veronica Amos finished with 11-points.

Even though the game was a lop-sided one, the Hayti Lady Indians competed from start to finish. Hayti coach Marlana Hughes did a good job of keeping her team plugged into the game.

"I can tell that she is doing a good job over there," said Bunting. "Her girls our playing hard the whole way through and even late in the game when she is telling them to hustle back they are listening to her."

Hughes said, "One thing that I try to do, even if we're loosing, is encourage the girls to play as a team. If we play as a team and play hard, the girls will improve and get better and they will still have fun. They have to have fun because, if you don't enjoy the game then what is the sense in playing. I just try to encourage them to have fun even when it's hard."

Caruthersville vs. Senath-Hornersville

Much like the first game of the night, the Senath-Hornersville Lady Lions were dominant in their game against Caruthersville. The Lady Lions took the game by a score of 53-11. SHHS was also to get points from turnovers created by their pressure defense. The Lady Lions had nine-points from turnovers in the first four-minutes of the game. Coach Jamie Johnson was not very impressed with the way the Lady Lions executed in the game though.

"We've been off for a few days due to school being out and haven't gotten the reps that we need to get , that's no excuse though," said Johnson. "We didn't play well, shoot well and we didn't rebound. I don't think we did one aspect of the game well tonight. That's going to get us a beat down the road. If we don't come ready to play, then someone is going to sneak up on us. If you're a good team then you just can't do that and tonight I thought that we just didn't play well. We're a lot better than we showed. Tomorrow, we're going to make some adjustments and go back to work because tonight was basically a waste as far as our effort was concerned. I was not very happy with the effort."

SHHS had two players reach double figures in scoring. Seleena Neal led with 19-points and Megan Smith totaled 13-points.

Campbell vs. Malden

In the final game of the night, the Malden Green Wave were able to knock off Campbell 49-29 to advance to the semifinals. The game was a close one early on. Malden held a slim lead through the first quarter and Khadijah Barnes pushed the Green Waves lead to three points when she got a turnover to score on a fast break to close out the opening period (11-8). Malden started to open up their lead on Campbell in the second quarter when the Green Wave were able to sub fresh players in and out. Campbell only had five players on their roster for the game and eventually the pace of the game wore on them.

"We came out and saw that they only had five players," said Malden coach Caysie Heil. "We figured that we needed to run on them. I've got to commend my girls. They did a really good job of listening to what I asked them to do and then executing it. We tried to push the ball and we pressed them for most of the game. We had some girls really step up. Shanetta Lockhart had two or three put backs as soon as she came in. Jennifer Miller had a great game for us as well."

Malden had two players get into double digits in scoring. Jennifer Miller led with 16-points and Latrilla McCoy finished with 10-points

Campbell's Whitney Whorton was their only player to reach double figures with 10-points.

On only using five players Campbell's coach Daren Ellsworth said,

"We have a girl out for the season that usually plays for us. With it being conference, I kept most of my girls down for junior varsity. It was definitely a factor and I believe they were playing on that. We didn't have a whole lot of turnovers against the press but, it did make us loose some energy."

In the semifinals on Thursday Malden will face Kennett and Portageville will face Senath-Hornersville.