Individual photos by Staci Otts
Last night the Kennedale Wildcats moved to 18-10 and 7-0 with a 70-60 win over the 2nd place Mineral Wells Rams, 16-6 and 5-2. {{more:Read more …}}
}} called the Mineral Wells Rams a very good team and as proof the Rams came close in the 4th quarter to pulling off an upset on the Cats? home court. With Kennedale leading by 10 at the beginning of the last quarter, the Rams got three straight turnovers from Kennedale and with the Rams ringing it up from outside, the game was tied at 50 with 6 minutes left in the game. The Cats had scored only 1 point in that stretch.
Mineral Wells was just 2 points behind with 3 minutes left in the game but with the Cats being patience and working the ball, Kennedale begin to stretch the lead. When the Rams were forced into fouling as the seconds ticked away, Kennedale hit their free throws and pulled away from the Rams. Helping to get the win in the 4th were shots from Bryce Hackett (4pts), Uniikye Washington (6pts), Chris Saulsby (5pts) and Tai Davis (5 of 6 from line).
Groff said that he was proud of the team, ?When they had to execute, they did. It was something that they had worked on all year.”
{{t2:Uniikye Washington (Jr): 
}} led all Wildcats with 14 pts. Close behind was {{t2:Tre Jones (So): 
}} with 13, {{t2:Tai Davis (Jr): 
}}12, {{t2:Chris Saulsby (Sr): 
}} 11, {{t2:Bryce Hackett (Jr): 
}}11, {{t2:Devon Stapleton (Jr): 
}}, {{t2:Alex Groff (Sr): 
}} 3 and {{t2:Stephone Jackson (Sr): 
}} 2.
There are five games left and an important one against Castleberry (16-10, 5-2) who have moved into 2nd place tie. Kennedale will be playing 3 of the their last five games on the road including the Castleberry match-up.
Kennedale jumped on the Bullfrogs from Lake Worth (11-17, 4-3) early taking a 15 point lead in Q1 by a score of 27-12. Uniikye Washington (Jr) scored 11 of his 17 game points in the quarter and then finished his scoring for the night all in first half when the Cats took a 47-19 lead and kept their big lead until the final whistle winning by 29.
Tre Jones ended with a team high at 21 points followed by 8 from Tai Davis, Bryce Hackett 7, Alex Groff 5, Trey Poe (So) 2, Stephone Jackson 2 and Chris Saulsby 1.
Jan 17 vs Springtown 64-49 Win
Kennedale dominated in Q1 15-7. Springtown (7-16, 2-4) played the Cats even in the Q2 15-15 but could not cut into eight point lead at halftime. The Cats increase the lead to 17 points with a 25-16 and then coasted to a 64-49 win. Sophomore {{t2:Tre Jones:
}} led the Cats with 21 points followed by Uniikye Washington (Jr) with 14. Other Cats scoring were Chris Saulsby (Sr) 8, Alex Groff (Sr) 6, Devon Stapleton (Jr) 5, Bryce Hackett (Jr) 5, Stephone Jackson (Sr) 4 and Tai Davis (Jr) 2.
Jan 20 @ Benbrook 65-47 Win
When you have that #1 on your shoulders everyone in district play is gunning for you, even more so for FTW Benbrook (4-17, 0-7). A two year old high school, Benbrook is competing in varsity basketball for the first year. Friday night they played Kennedale even in the first half with Q1 ending with the Wildcats up just 11-10 and the half was tied at 24 all.
But it was {{t2:Uniikye Washington (Jr):of the Week
By the end of the third Kennedale had gained control of the game with a 41-33 lead. The Cats then finished the win by stretching the lead to 18 points at 65-17 and completed a first round sweep of District 7-4A.
Besides Washington, other Cats scoring included Tre Jones (So) 12 (going 4-4 from the line), Stephone Jackson (Jr) 11, Bryce Hackett (Jr) 8, Chris Saulsby (Sr) 6, Alex Groff (Sr) 3 and {{t2:Godfrey Agogo (Sr):
}} 3.
