SHS girls rally past Kennett

KENNETT -- For three quarters of play Monday night, the Kennett Lady Indians seemed to be on their way to a victory over the Sikeston Lady Bulldogs.

However, the last three minutes of the contest cost them the win and Sikeston (6-10) defeated the Lady Indians 35-30. With the loss, the Lady Indians fell back to the .500 mark with a record of 9-9.

On the Lady Bulldogs comeback, coach Tiffany King said, "We stepped up our defense and started to press a little more. Ali (Blurton) got into early foul trouble and we got her back in the fourth quarter and she really keyed our defense. We double teamed their post player Duckworth and they had trouble scoring after that."

After Kennett's Tori Ratliff's short jumper extended the Lady Indians' lead to 30-25 with 3:15 left, Sikeston's Martika Davis gave the Lady Bulldogs new life down the stretch.

Davis has two excellent moves in transition, off Lady Indian turnovers, and trimmed the lead to 30-29 with 2:05 remaining. Davis led Sikeston with 13 points and 10 rebounds in the contest.

Allison Blurton gave the Lady Bulldogs the lead for good by following a teammate's errant shot and netting a short jumper with 1:25 to play.

Junior Alayna Palmer had one final opportunity to give the Lady Indians the lead with a pair of foul shots with a minute left, however, the rim was unkind and Davis pulled down the rebound.

Blurton showed great poise at the charity stripe and nailed two free-throws to extend the Sikeston lead to 33-30 with 27 seconds showing on the clock.

The Lady Indians called a timeout with 20 seconds remaining to set up a final play, but the defense of the Lady Bulldogs forced the Lady Indians to take a pair of deep shots.

Tori Ratliff attempted a game-tying three-pointer from the top of the key, but it bounced off and Jae Ratliff came down with the rebound.

After Watkins ended up with the ball, Tori Ratliff attempted another three, nonetheless, the ball bounced around the rim and Sikeston came down with the rebound.

Davis sealed the victory for Sikeston with a pair of foul shots with 1.2 seconds left.

In the losing effort, Ratliff recorded 12 rebounds and dished 10 assists in the contest. Center Monica Duckworth netted a game-high 19 points for the Lady Indians and finished with seven rebounds on the night.

Point guard Amber Minner added 11 points for the Lady Bulldogs.

The Lady Indians shot 12-of-53 (23 percent) from the field while the Lady Bulldogs made 13-of-43 shots (30 percent) on the night.

"Their pressure just got to us in the end," Kennett head coach Christel Jefferson said.

"We have got to learn to play through that or we are going to be in trouble. We will play a good game and then a bad game, but it seems like we always lose the close ones."

Sikeston hosts New Madrid County Central on Thursday.