Tribe advances to quarterfinals after taking down No. 1 Arcadia Valley

The Kennett Indians proved some people wrong on Wednesday night.

After dropping out of the state rankings in the final week of the regular season, The Indians were able to take down the number one state ranked team in Class 3, The Arcadia Valley Tigers.

Kennett's 77-57 victory over Arcadia will advance them to the state quarterfinals where they will face Cardinal Ritter.

"This is the first Kennett team to ever win a sectional game," said Kennett coach Jim Vaughan. "This is a landmark event for us. I'm ecstatic right now, especially about how are kids played and stayed the course. Arcadia is a good and disciplined team. They kept making runs and we just did what we do. Eventually, it wore on them."

The Indians jumped out in the first quarter to build a good lead against the Tigers. After the 4:30 mark in the first quarter, Kennett held the lead for the rest of the game.

With Arcadia on top 6-2 in the first, the Indians started to get pressure on the Tigers to create some turnovers and build their lead.

Fred Garmon put back an offensive rebound, and Randrick Caruthers came up with a steal off of the press on the ensuing possession. The turnover led to Caruthers hitting a mid-range jumper to tie the game at six with 5:15 left in the first. Jimmy Gooden came up with another steal from the press on the following possession. That turnover led to Jack Walls hitting a pull up jumper to give Kennett the lead (8-6). After a basket by Arcadia, Andy Lack nailed a 3' from the right side to put the Indians back on top (11-8).

Kennett never trailed again after Lack's 3'

Garmon came up with another steal off of the press after Lack's 3', but the turnover couldn't be converted to points.

The Indians closed out the first quarter on an 8-3 run.

Cameron Wallace found Jimmy Gooden for a 3' in the corner with 1:48 to go (16-10). After Wallace's 3', Walls came up with a turnover for Kennett. Walls' steal wouldn't be converted though. Caruthers drove the baseline for a basket with one minute left (18-12). The Indians had the last possession of the first quarter and as they came down court the ball was tipped out of bounds. Jay Shavers inbounded the ball with .7 seconds left on the clock. Shavers found Wallace beyond the arc on the inbound pass and Wallace put the shot up as soon as he received the pass. Wallace's 3' attempt was good as the buzzer sounded to end the quarter with the ball still in the air (21-13).

Arcadia's only scoring during Kennett's run to close the quarter was three-points from out of four trips to the foul line.

Kennett more than doubled their lead in the opening 2:30 of the second quarter.

The quarter opened with Walls finding Caruthers for a 3' (24-13). Then Gooden came up with a steal during Arcadia's following offensive set. Gooden took the ball himself on a breakaway and dunked it on the other end to open a 13-point lead 36-seconds into the quarter (26-13). After three-points off of free throws for the Tigers, Usry sunk a 3' from the top of the key for the Indians (29-16). Erick Lindsey followed with a bucket in the paint for Arcadia. Caruthers answered back with a floater in the lane (31-18).

On the next series, the Indians opened their biggest lead of the half.

Caruthers came up with a steal after his basket and brought it to the other end for a dunk with 5:41 left in the half (33-18). On Arcadia's next offensive set, Brock Walker came down with an offensive rebound. Shavers ripped the ball from Walker and scored on a fast break to give Kennett a 17-point lead with 5:24 left in the half (35-18).

Kennett would end up taking a 12-point lead into the half (48-36).

Arcadia Valley did put a run together when they cut the lead down to four-points in the first three minutes of the second half.

The Tigers were able to get two quick baskets in the lane to start the half (48-40). After Kennett added one-point from the foul line, Lindsey put in a basket from the paint for the Tigers (49-42). Caruthers put in a mid-range jumper from the base line for the Indians to push the lead back to nine at the 5:48 mark (51-42). However, Arcadia got a 3' from Walker and another basket under the rim from Lindsey. After that, Kennett called a time-out at the 5:02 mark of the third quarter with their lead cut down to four (51-47).

Following the time-out, the Indians opened their lead back up and never looked back.

"We had the lead up to 12-points at halftime, but Arcadia Valley wasn't undefeated for no reason," Vaughan said. "They cut the lead to four-points right after the half. They are good enough to sustain, claw back into it and do things the right way. We knew coming into the game that we were going to have to sustain their runs and fire back at them. They got the first possession out of the half and got a good look. We had two pretty silly offensive possession's right away and they were able to go down and get easy baskets. When they cut the lead to four-points we called a time-out. After that, I thought we did a good job of coming out and putting a little run of our own together. Then, we eventually got the lead more and more in our favor."

Arcadia Valley had three players reach double digits in scoring with Brock Walker leading at 21-points. Lindsey put in 12 and Spitzmiller finished with 11-points.

Kennett also had three players reach double figures with Caruthers leading at 17-points. Garmon put in 13 and Gooden finished with 12-points.

The Indians next game will be in the quarterfinals at the Farmington Civic Center at 7:45 on Saturday night. The opponent will be the Cardinal Ritter Lions. Cardinal Ritter is a private school from St. Louis and is currently 24-4 on the season. Cardinal Ritter has eight players over six feet tall with one at 6'5".