Top seeds advance in Class 3, District 1 Tournament

Staff photo by Aaron Lynn
NMCC's William Bledsoe gets a dunk in the second half of their game against Malden on Monday Night [Order this photo]

The Kennett Indians faced off against the Kelly Hawks in the first game of the night. The Indians didn't have much trouble from Kelly, who is having a down year.

After dropping our last two regular season games, it kind of rattled us and woke us up," said Kennett coach Jim Vaughan. "We've had really good competitive and exhausting practices over the last week. I think that helped lead us into how we opened this game up tonight. We had a lot of energy and a lot of speed. Thats what we're used to seeing and it's how we have to play from the onset of a game instead of settling in. I was pleased with how we got out of the gate, we didn't loose anything when we went to the bench, and everyone picked up where the last person left off. I hope we can continue that. I told the kids in the locker room that we are going to have to have two of our best days of practice preparing for this next game."

Staff photo by Aaron Lynn
Caruthersville's Belton McWIlliams (1) looks to pass inside against East Prairie's Field LaPlant (3) and Shawn King (1).

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"We have to be an attack team and that is why we spread things out," Vaughan said. "I think something that we did better today than we have done in a while is move without the basketball. We didn't rely on one guy dribbling and creating a play tonight. Therefore, we had better dribble lanes when we penetrated and we had a lot of inside-out plays."

Kennett will advance to Thursday's semifinals where they will face the Caruthersville Tigers. Kennett and Caruthersville have faced off twice this year. The first meeting saw Kennett take a decisive 67-47 victory. However, Caruthersville was missing some of their key players early in the season and when the two teams faced off again in the Bootheel Conference Tournament Championship Game it was a different story. Caruthersville had a lead in the fourth quarter and Kennett rallied late to take the game by a score of 81-77.

"We've played them twice and we know each other well," Vaughan said. "There is no doubt that they are going to come in ready to go. I told our kids that I could promise them that Caruthersville is working their tails off. We're going to have to be a team that doesn't get out-worked. It's going to be a highly competitive game and I hope we're geared up for it."

In the second game of the night, Caruthersville met up with the East Prairie Eagles. East Prairie led after one quarter, but Caruthersville's speed eventually proved to be too much for the Eagles.

"This is the first time any of our kids have been out of the first round of districts, so I'm happy for them," said Caruthersville coach David Heeb. "16-wins is the most wins that we have had in a long time at Caruthersville. I thought we came out a little tight in the game tonight and the kids might have been a little nervous. After we settled down, we played OK."

Caruthersville will advance to Thursday's semifinals where they will face a familiar foe in the Indians.

"Kennett's got a real good team," Heeb said. "Obviously we've played each other, so they know us and we know them. I think it's going to come down to who makes the least amount of mistakes. They've got a real good team, but so do we. After getting past this first round, any of these four teams could win the whole thing."

NMCC and Malden squared off in the third game of the night. This game was close in the early going, but NMCC's pressure finally got to Malden. NMCC eventually took the game well in hand.

"I think we were passive and didn't want to make a lot of mistakes early in the game," said NMCC coach Travis Day. "We didn't come out as intense as I would have liked us to. Malden is not a bad team and they made us play close. As the game went along we started to pick up our intensity played like we are capable of playing."

NMCC will advance to Thursday's semifinals where they will face the Charleston Blue Jays. These two teams have already met up once this year. In their earlier meeting, NMCC took the win at home by a score of 55-51.

"I think that us and Charleston are about as even as two-teams can possibly get, Day said. "When we played earlier in the season it was tit-for-tat. They've got Deonte Jones and he's hard to match up with, he's one of the best shooters in this area. It's going to be one of those games where in this time of the year you just have to go out and play."

The final game of the night saw Charleston and the Scott City Rams. Scott City took a lead mid-way through the first, but it was all Charleston after that.

"We wanted to come out and play hard so we could advance to the next level," said Charleston coach Danny Farmer. "We knew that Scott City was on the down this year and we could probably win the game, but we still needed to play hard and get ready for Thursday's game. We just wanted to come out and play hard."

Charleston has been extremely hot with their perimeter shooting lately and tonight was no different.

"We rely on our perimeter shooting a lot," Farmer said. "We're not real dominant in the post area, so we feel that we have to get our looks and knock them down to be effective. We will have to shoot the ball well to beat New Madrid."

Charleston will face New Madrid for the second time this season in Thursday's semifinals.

"We are both aggressive teams that play aggressive defense, Farmer said. "Every time we play each other it seems like it's a real tough gritty game. They're stronger and out-size us, but we're better shooters than they are. New Madrid is going to be a tough game. They're playing well, but we've been playing well also. I just think it's going to be a really tough game."

The first semifinal game on Thursday will be (4) Caruthersville vs. (1) Kennett at 6 pm in Kennett. The second semifinal game on Thursday will be (3) Charleston vs. (2) New Madrid County Central at 7:30 pm in Kennett.