Portageville clinches title

PORTAGEVILLE - With a total team effort, the Portageville Bulldogs lived up to their top seeding in Class 3, District 1 with a victory over the third-seeded Caruthersville Tigers 64-55.

The district championship is the Bulldogs' first since 2000.

The Bulldogs placed three players in double digits with Willie Hassell's 21, Jordan Penn's 19 and Trey Mosby's 10.

But the real story of the game was the things that the entire team did like playing good defense, rebounding and holding down the turnovers.

"We had spurts where we really looked good but we had spurts where we let them back in. We took some ill-advised shots and should have been more patient of offense, but defensively and rebounding in the second half, our kids played about as hard they could," said Portageville coach Jim Bidewell.

Caruthersville's Plessie Ellitt, who had 13 points in the game, netted nine of them in the opening quarter, and the Tigers built up a 15-11 lead with three seconds left.

Portageville inbounded the ball to Hassell who promptly launched a 50-foot shot that banked off the backboard and found the bottom of the net to pull the Bulldogs to within one at end of the quarter 15-14.

Kyle Hubbard, who had 10 points, opened the scoring in the second to make the score 17-14, but Mosby led a 6-0 Portageville run that gave the Bulldogs their first lead in the game at 20-17.

The two teams traded scores for the remainder of the half, but Penn's trey gave Portageville a 29-27 lead at intermission.

"Last night, it was Cory Chamberlain who came off the bench and had a big game for us. Tonight, it was Mosby. Tomorrow it may be somebody else, that's why they call it a team game," said Bidewell. "If we can get that production off the bench, we will be hard to beat."

Kendrickus Reed hit a conventional 3-point play to start the third quarter to give the lead back to the Tigers and they led 30-29. Neither team could forge much of a lead in the period, but consecutive buckets by Ellitt and Paul Sanders put the tigers up by four at 41-37. Hassell answered with a conventional 3-pointer to cut the lead to 41-40 going into the decisive fourth quarter.

The Bulldogs really hit their stride in the final period. They went on an 8-0 run to begin and assumed a lead that they would not relinquish again. They led 48-41 at the 5:57 point.

Penn tallied 10 of his total points in the period and pulled some key rebounds. The Bulldogs hit 10-11 from the charity stripe when the game was on the line.

Reed pulled the Tigers to within five at 56-51 at the 1:46 mark, but Portageville ended the contest on an 8-4 run to seal the win.

The Bulldogs, who are ranked 7th in the state will meet the winner of the Charleston-Kelly contest on Wednesday at Poplar Bluff High School at 8:30 p.m.