Charleston gets past Kennett with perimeter shooting

On Saturday, two Class 3, District 1 opponents met up in Charleston. In a preview of a game that might be seen in next week's district tournament, the Charleston Blue Jays took the edge in this one. The Blue Jays were able to take down the Kennett Indians by a score of 94-78 due to an outstanding game from behind the 3-point arc.

"We've shot the 3-pointer well two nights in a row now," said Charleston coach Danny Farmer. "We have always had the ability and tendency to shoot it well, but it's coming together now. We have some shooters."

Deonte Jones is one of Charleston's best players and definitely one of their best perimeter shooters. Jones hit six-shots from beyond the arc in the game. Four of those shots were daggers for the Indians. Two of his 3's came in the opening 3:30 of the game to give the Blue Jays a 10-point lead. The next two came in the final 2:35 of the first half. After Kennett overcame their 10-point deficit to take a slim one-point lead, Jones hit two more 3's to cap a Charleston run. Jones' 3's sent the Blue Jays to the half with an 11-point advantage (48-37). Jones' last two 3's came when the game was somewhat decided in the final two-minutes. If the threat of Jones wasn't enough, his teammates almost double his 3-point shooting with 11-total team 3-pointers in the game. The Blue Jays also used their good shooting the night before to pull off a big win over Poplar Bluff.

Kennett came into the game without one of their starting forwards, senior Jimmy Gooden. The Indians missed Gooden's presence in this one as Charleston was able to get a lot of inside-outside action against Kennett.

"When you play deep like we do," said Kennett coach Jim Vaughan. "It hurts when you're missing a body. Not just a body, but a near double-double guy. It certainly has an effect. They went to the post a little bit today and we had a hard time defending that. That hurt us. We tried to double-in on post ups, then they hit 11-shots from 3-point range. We had to take one threat away to give up another. A lot of times, Gooden can handle people in the post one-on-one. He's not big, but he is strong and mobile."

Even though the Indians were down 14-points in the game, they have a knack for putting third quarter runs together, and this game was no different.

It started when Fred Garmon came up with a steal on Charleston's end of the court. Garmon launched the ball down to Dwight Usry for a lay-up on the other end at the 6:07 mark of the third (53-41). Over the next possessions, the Blue Jays came up with a defensive and offensive rebound, but could only put one point on the board from a foul shot. When the second foul shot was missed, Randrick Caruthers came down with the ball for Kennett. Caruthers secured the rebound and, as Garmon did before, made a long pass down court to Jack Walls for a lay-up at the 5:31 mark (54-43). On the Indians next possession, Andy Lack was fouled after bringing down an offensive rebound and hit both of his free throws at the 4:30 mark (54-45). After Charleston came up empty on their following possession, Kennett came down with three-offensive rebounds on their set with Walls being fouled on his. Walls hit one of his two shots. Charleston finally got points on the board at the 3:19 mark when Gregory Tucker knocked down two foul shots (56-46). Walls went to the line again on the Indians next possession and hit one-of-two (56-47). Charleston followed Walls' free throws with a throwaway on the next set.

Kennett got a big push on their following possession. The Indians didn't have much trouble getting penetration on Charleston during the first half, so when Caruthers drove the lane to the basket the defense collapsed on him. Caruthers was able to kick the ball back out to Usry in the corner for a wide open look. Usry knocked down the 3' and pulled Kennett to within six-points at the 2:40 mark in the third (56-50). With the momentum swinging, Wallace stole the ball from the Blue Jays as they came down court and was fouled on his way to the basket. Wallace hit both free throws to cut the lead to four with 2:30 left in the third (56-52).

"They are relentless," Farmer said. "Kennett has played a few games where they have come back from 12-points down, so I knew the game wouldn't be over till the end of the fourth quarter. I was just trying to sustain during their runs by playing more people. We wanted to keep guys fresh so that when they went on their runs we could counteract them. When you play a team like Kennett, you have to play 9 to 10 people effectively or you're going to be in trouble."

The Blue Jays started to keep pace with Kennett in the last 2:18 of the third. Demarques McKeller converted an "And 1" and Claude Armstrong scored a basket on a fast break. Meanwhile, Caruthers hit a 15-footer and Wallace scored twice for the Indians. Both of Wallace's scores came on drives to the basket. Wallace got a lay-up on one of the drives and on the other he was fouled and hit both foul shots.

"Wallace was tough today," Vaughan said. "He didn't make many from the perimeter, but he sure took the ball to the basket strong. It's good to see him do that. Maybe it will give him confidence to do that a little bit more. He's quick enough and tough enough to do it. I think he proved that to himself today and we'll see more of that out of him."

With 10-seconds left in the third quarter, Charleston was on top by five-points (63-58). Then, the Blue Jays stretched their lead to nine-points in the final 10-seconds of the quarter. In a game that was called tight on both sides, Charleston went to the foul line three times in those last 10-seconds. McKeller saw the line first and hit his first shot, but missed the second shot. Armstrong came down with the offensive rebound for Charleston and was fouled on the try. Armstrong, like McKeller, hit his first shot and missed the second shot. Jones came down with the missed free throw for Charleston and he was fouled when going back up for a shot. Jones hit both foul shots and the Blue Jays closed out the period with a nine-point lead (67-58).

"We had it to within four-points late in the third quarter and we gave up three-possessions on offensive rebounds and free throws," Vaughan said. "We probably gave up five-points right there. Their lead went from four to nine in about five-seconds on offensive rebounds. One thing I addressed after the game was that we didn't compete all the time at rebounding today. We can talk about Gooden not being here, but that's bull. We all have to be ready to step-up."

The Indians were able to cut the lead back down to six-points in the opening 1:30 of the fourth quarter. Garmon, who was able to slash the Blue Jay defense most of the game to get to the rim, hit back-to-back 3's to pull the Indians closer at the 6:24 mark of the fourth (71-65).

"We play in a spread," Vaughan said. "We try to play to our strengths and we have players that can handle the ball pretty good. Garmon took advantage of that. Not only took advantage, but he went to the hole strong today. I was impressed with how tough he was at the basket. When they started to back off of him, he made the right decision and canned a couple of 3's."

Kennett would not get any closer though, as the Blue Jays outscored them 23-13 in the final six-minutes of the game.

Charleston, who seems to be peaking at the right time, will certainly look to carry this momentum into next week's district tournament.

"I have a few kids that have only played half of the year," Farmer said. "They have gotten into the flow of the game lately and have started to learn to play our style. They have made us a much better team. We have some depth too. We will play about 10 people on a given night. We've become a much better team after getting some of those kids back. Our record isn't really an indication of how well we play. We're 11-12 right now, but we play a brutal schedule."

Charleston had five players reach double figures in scoring with Jones leading at 33-points. McKeller put in 14, Jerry Carter tacked on 13, Devonte Johnson totaled 12 and Tucker finished with 10-points.

Kennett had three players reach double figures with Garmon leading at 19-points. Wallace put in 18 and Caruthers finished with 13-points.