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Kennett girls outlast Senath-Hornersville 51-47
Kennett senior Kayton Harris (left) is guarded by Senath-Hornersville senior Madi Shrum in the paint Thursday.
SENATH, Mo. - The Kennett Indians varsity girls basketball team jumped out to an 18-9 lead after one quarter of play and needed the early breathing room it created the rest of the way Thursday night.
The host Senath-Hornersville Lions opened the second quarter on a 9-0 run to move ahead 19-18 and increased its lead as large as 31-28 with 6:03 left in the third quarter.
Senath-Hornersville’s junior guard Emmeline Rodriguez pushes the ball up the floor at home Thursday.
Kennett managed to move back ahead 40-36 by the end of the third period and played Senath-Hornersville even in the fourth quarter to escape with a 51-47 road win.
Senath-Hornersville freshman Cally Jackson looks to make a pass against Kennett Thursday.
“Anytime we can get a win right now it’s a big deal,” Kennett coach Kevin McCaig said. “We knew Senath would come out and play hard in a rivalry game featuring towns 15 minutes apart. You can throw everything out in rivalry games. Teams in close proximity know each other so the players play harder and the fans get more involved. Coach Taylor does a good job with her girls and they executed a lot of their game plan tonight. We didn’t shoot the ball well from the free throw line tonight and it ended up being a close game. But we made some big plays when we needed to and executed somewhat down the stretch to hang on.”
The Indians outscored Senath-Hornersville 10-1 in the closing three minutes of the first quarter to build its largest lead of the first half at 18-9.
“That may have been our best quarter of the year,” McCaig said.
Kennett, which was in the double bonus for the final seven minutes of the first half, struggled to knock down free throws after the first quarter. The Indians missed 16 of the 19 free throws it attempted in the second period. The missed free throws helped Senath-Hornersville narrow the margin to 28-24 by halftime before it went on a 7-0 run to move ahead 31-28 in the third period.
“Going into it we wanted to defend, box out and take care of the basketball,” Senath-Hornersville coach Ashley Taylor said. “I felt like we had a minute or two in the first quarter where we didn’t do those things. Aftter the first quarter, I reminded them of the things that are important in our program and they really stepped up and performed the rest of the way.”
Kennett enjoyed its own 8-0 run after it burned a timeout to move back ahead 36-31 with 4:23 left in the third period. The Lions scored the next five points to tie things up at 36-36 and force another Kennett timeout. The Indians followed with the next four points after the timeout to move back ahead 40-36 by the start of the fourth quarter.
“You are trying to stop the momentum with the crowd involved,” McCaig said. “We are also still learning each other and learning our plays. We used our timeouts and tried to draw something up on the board and they executed well after both timeouts.”
Kennett led by as much as 49-40 with 4:18 left in the fourth period. The Indians led by nine once more at 51-42 with two minutes left in the fourth quarter before the Lions recorded the final five points to set the final score.
Senior forward Tyneshia Wilson paced Kennett with 15 points. She had five 2-pointers and made five of the seven free throws she attempted.
Senior guard Dakayla Duckworth and senior center Kayton Harris also finished in double digits for the Indians. Duckworth recorded 14 points on five 2-pointers and four free throws. Harris recorded 13 points on five 2-pointers and three free throws.
“I thought there were times we executed well,” McCaig said. “We probably got eight to 10 points on set plays and those points were humongous for us.”
Becca Tom paced Senath-Hornersville with 17 points. She hit five of her team’s seven treys. Tom picked up her fourth foul with 3:31 left in the third quarter and was forced to play sporadically in the closing minutes of regulation.
“I had to sub her in on offense and out on defense in the fourth quarter because I didn’t want her to pick up her fifth foul,” Taylor said. “It’s tough to sit her on the bench because she’s such a pure shooter.”
Jazz Hernandez hit the Lions’ other two treys. She also finished in double digits with 10 points.
Kennett was whistled for 18 fouls and Senath-Hornersville had 25 fouls. Five Lions players and one Kennett player finished with four fouls but no one fouled out. Senath-Hornersville made eight of 16 free throws and Kennett made 14 of 41 free throws.
“You have to give Kennett credit,” Taylor said. “They did a good job of taking it at our defense. It wasn’t in the plan to send them to the line but Kennett did a good job of taking it at us. They made it to the charity stripe and we didn’t.”
Kennett (4-9) is back in action Tuesday when it visits Notre Dame.
Senath-Hornersville (4-6) visits Portageville Tuesday.
“We’ve got a rough stretch with Malden, Kennett and Portageville back to back,” Taylor said. “Portageville is big and pretty skilled so we will have another dog fight on our hands Tuesday.”
Kennett 51, Senath-Hornersville 47
KHS 18 10 12 11 - 51
SHS 9 15 12 11 - 47
KENNETT (51) - Meagan Pickens 1, Dakayla Duckworth 14, Caroline Patton 1, Tynesha Wilson 15, Janesha Hubbard 7, Kayton Harris 13. FG 18, FT 14/41, F 17. (3-pointers: Hubbard 1; Fouled out: None).
SENATH-HORNERSVILLE (47) - Camille Edmonston 5, Natalie Vilchis 3, Kylie Cook 4, Samantha Salas 2, Madi Shrum 4, Aubry Jones 2, Becca Tom 17, Jazz Hernandez 10. FG 16, FT 8/16, F 25. (3-pointers: Tom 5, Hernandez 2; Fouled out: None).
Kennett senior Dakayla Duckworth (left) and Senath-Hornersville junior Natalie Vilchis (right) fight for a rebound in a varsity girls basketball game Thursday.