Lady Lions win Bootheel Conference Tournament

For the Senath-Hornersville Lady Lions, the third time was a charm when it came to facing off against the Kennett Lady Indians this season. The two teams met up in the Girls Bootheel Conference Tournament Championship Game on Wednesday night. Kennett took the first two meetings against SHHS, but the Lady Lions have steadily improved over the season and were full of confidence coming into the game. The game saw six different lead changes and had the physicality of a rivalry game. SHHS overcame a five-point halftime deficit to keep things close through the third quarter. Then, they put an 11-1 fourth quarter run together to seal the game and tournament championship for the Lady Lions who won by a score of 50-43.

"It's really nice to win the Bootheel Conference Tournament in the junior varsity and varsity," said Senath-Hornersville coach Jamie Johnson. "This gives us a lot to look forward to in the future. I was proud of both teams tonight, they both played well. Now, we're looking forward to finishing the season and heading into districts."

Staff photo by Aaron Lynn The Lady Lions hold up their Bootheel Conference Tournament Championship plaque. Top Row, Left to Right: Seleena Neal, Jami Jackson, Mallory Fritz, Natalie Bibbs, Shelby Sullivan, Coach Jamie Johnson. Bottom Row, Left to Right: Megan Smith, McKenzie Harris, Hannah Kennedy, Randa Jarred.

The Lady Lions changed the game in the fourth-quarter. SHHS opened up an 11-point lead in the first three-minutes after starting the quarter with a slim one-point advantage (33-32). The Lady Lions really dialed up the pressure on Kennett and came up with four steals during the run.

Staff photo by Aaron Lynn SHHS's Seleena Neal drives into the lane agianst Kennett's Veronica Amos (30) and Jerrica Wheeler (5). [Click to enlarge]

"We hit a couple of shots and we changed presses," Johnson said. "Kennett did a very good job against our first press. We made some changes at halftime and went to a different press, a different look. It gave us some turnovers and put a little bit more pressure on some spots. The girls did a great job, I can talk all day long about presses, but they did a good job of getting pressure."

SHHS's Seleena Neal pulled down a defensive rebound and scored on the other end at the 7:20 mark of the fourth quarter. Jami Jackson got a steal when the Lady Indians in-bounded the ball and and sunk both free throws after she was fouled. SHHS's Hannah Kennedy found McKenzie Harris on the left side of the arc for a 3-pointer. Then, Harris found Megan Smith in the paint for a bucket. Harris finished off the run by coming up with a steal and hitting both foul shots with 4:50 left in the game (44-33). The only offense that the Lady Indians could muster during SHHS's opening fourth quarter run was one-point from a Brittney Williams free throw.

Kennett tried to get back in the game in the final minutes by cutting into the Lady Lions lead. Williams had a put-back on an offensive rebound with 4:30 left, but SHHS answered back with Harris finding Neal for a 3' on the right side (47-35). The Lady Lions didn't have very much scoring over the next few minutes and missed an opportunity by letting an offensive rebound slip away and roll out of bounds. Williams hit two foul shots for Kennett at the 2:24 mark (47-37). The Lady Lions tried to move the ball around to run some time off the clock on their following possession, but Veronica Amos came up with a steal for Kennett. Amos' steal led to Williams tacking on two more points, this time from the paint (47-39). McKenzie Carr got another steal for Kennett as SHHS tried to run the clock and that led to Williams getting another bucket in the paint with 1:14 left to play (47-41). The Lady Indians would not get any closer though. They had to go to the desperation foul and even though SHHS only hit two of their six foul shots, it was enough to take the win.

The Lady Lions may have taken the right strategy in the game by taking their chances underneath the basket and not letting themselves get burned by Kennett's two star outside players, Amos and Jerrica Wheeler.

"We doubled Wheeler most of the ballgame and put our best defender on Amos to try and take away the outside threat," Johnson said. "That opened up their bigs, but we left one of the shooters open, hoping that Amos or Wheeler wouldn't kill us from the outside."

Neal was a driving force for the Lady Lions in the game by putting up 24-points on the night and being a shut-down player on defense. Neal also pulled down over 10 rebounds and came up with three steals.

Staff photo by Aaron Lynn SHHS's Hannah Kennedy (22) comes up with a steal in the fourth quarter against Kennett's Alexandria Brown. [Click to enlarge]

Harris was also a big key for SHHS by being their second leading scorer and nailing a couple of big 3's during two key runs for the Lady Lions.

"She is the leader of this bunch," Johnson said. "She is everything that you could ask for in a senior. She does everything asked of her, takes all the tail chewing's and runs our offense and defense. I couldn't ask for a better player than Harris. She's tough and she's a great kid."

Harris took a beating in the game by going to the floor hard on several fouls. Harris and Kennett's point-guard, Wheeler, both spilled some blood on the court during the championship game.

The Lady Lions overcame a five-point halftime deficit earlier in the game by coming out hot from the field to start the second half. Amos, one of Kennett's star players, had to sit out much of the third quarter with foul trouble.

"Amos got into foul trouble in the third quarter," said Kennett coach Casey Bunting. "When she came out that adjusted our game play a little bit. We've had trouble in the third quarter, we've been coming out flat instead of on fire. That's something that we have to work on in the coming games."

SHHS started the second half by putting a run together. Neal found Harris on the left side of the arc for a 3-pointer 55-seconds into the half. Harris got the ball to Smith in the paint for a bucket. Smith found Neal on an in-bound pass for a quick 15-footer. Then, Neal hit to foul shots at the 4:11 mark to give the Lady Lions a two-point lead and erase their 5-point deficit at the start of the half (27-25). During that time, Kennett's only scoring came when Carr found Williams in the paint for two-points. The Lady Indians also had a throwaway and a steal that couldn't be converted during SHHS's run.

"I think our lack of execution was the turning point," Bunting said. "We played hard and put a lot of effort forth, but we just weren't executing when it came to the little things.

The Lady Indians tied the game back up at the 3:43 mark when Williams pulled down an offensive rebound that led to Carr hitting a jumper (27-27). The Lady Indians took the lead back when Alexandria Brown came up with a steal and hit one-of-two from the line with 2:51 left in the third quarter. It was the last time the Lady Indians held the lead in the game. The Lady Lions built a five-point lead up over the next two-minutes. Neal was found again on an inbound pass for a quick jump shot. Then, Neal came up with a steal that led to Harris hitting two foul shots. After that, Kennedy got a steal off of the press to find Neal for a lay up with 57-seconds left in the quarter (33-28). The Lady Indians pulled back once again though, closing out the quarter with two baskets. Brown hit one of them as time expired to cut SHHS's lead to one-point (33-32).

"We were kind of out of our rhythm offensively," Johnson said. "A lot of that had to do with Kennett's pressure. They did a good job of trying to disturb what we were trying to do. Finally, we started moving through the offense, getting better looks, and getting some inside play. That helped us to maintain the game and keep it close early because we definitely were not running away with it at that point in time."

Kennett's pressure did have an effect on SHHS, especially early in the game when the Lady Indians were able to put the Lady Lions in a funk for a few offensive sets.

Staff photo by Aaron Lynn SHHS's McKenzie Harris looks for a pass against Kennett's Jerrica Wheeler (5) [Click to enlarge]

Both teams started the second quarter cold offensively. SHHS had two offensive rebounds that couldn't be converted. The Lady Indians had a steal that was wasted in the offensive set and a throwaway on offense. For the first 3:56 of the second quarter, the only scoring came when Natalie Bibbs found Jackson in the paint to bring the Lady Lions within two-points (14-12). At the 5:04 mark, Neal came up with an offensive rebound for SHHS that led to Smith kicking the ball out to Kennedy for a mid-range jumper to tie the game (14-14). As Kennett brought the ball up the court on the following possession, Neal came up with a steal off of the press for the Lady Lions. Neal was fouled on the way to the basket and knocked down both free throws to put SHHS back on top by two (16-14). The lead switched back and forth on the next few possession's with Amos and Neal both getting baskets for their teams. The Lady Indians tied the game back up when Wheeler hit one-of-two from the line at the 3:39 mark of the second quarter (18-18). The Lady Lions once again, went cold from the field. After Neal's basket at the four-minute mark in the second quarter, SHHS didn't score another point to close out the half. The Lady Indians finished the half by coming up with two offensive rebounds that led to three-points from the foul line and Amos getting another basket. The two teams went into the half with Kennett on top by five-points (23-18).

"At halftime we talked about the importance of what we have to do on the boards," Johnson said. "Kennett is big and strong, and their girls do a great job on the inside of boxing-out. I didn't think we hit the boards that hard in the first half. In the second half, it seemed like we attacked the boards a lot better and that gave us some offensive chances.

Staff photo by Aaron Lynn SHHS's Jami Jackson (left) and Hannah Kennedy (right) celebrate after the win. [Click to enlarge]

The beginning of the game set the tone for how the night played out with one team getting on top then the other taking over.

To start the game, Kennedy found Neal for a three-pointer from the top of the key to put the Lady Lions on the board 20-seconds in. The Lady Indians got on the board when Williams came up with a steal that she converted to two-points on a lay-up. Neal gave SHHS their three-point lead back with a mid-range jumper. After Kennett came up empty on their possession, the Lady Lions coughed the ball up when Amos came up with a steal that led to her getting the ball back for a basket to pull Kennett within one-point two minutes into the game (5-4). Harris answered Amos's steal with one of her own on Kennett's next possession, but the Lady Lions couldn't put points on the board from it. SHHS went cold for the next two minutes by coming up with two rebounds that led to no points. Meanwhile, Wheeler gave the Lady Indians a three-point lead by penetrating SHHS's defense twice to get four-points in the paint (8-5).

"Wheeler can penetrate on anybody at any given time," Bunting said. "Sometimes, we want to move the ball around, but other times we just want to get the ball in her hand and let her go."

The Lady Lions pulled back to within one after Kennedy drove the lane for a basket (8-7), but Kennett started to open a first quarter lead from that point. Brown found Williams twice in the paint for baskets and Brown put in one of her own from the paint to give the Lady Indians a seven-point lead with 30-seconds left in the first quarter. SHHS closed out the quarter strong though. Kennedy got a lay-up off of a fast break and Harris hit one-of-two from the foul line with one-second left to close out the quarter with a four-point deficit (14-10).

Kennett had one player reach double figures in scoring with Williams putting in 13-points.

SHHS had two players reach double figures. Neal led with 24-points and Harris finished with 12-points.