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? ? ?The Lady Kats took care of business on Thursday, defeating Smithville 87-66 in the state 3A semifinals. ?Unranked Smithville, a surprise team in the final four, couldn’t keep up with #3 Kennedale.?? ? ?After a short lead they fell behind early and couldn’t catch up. Travanti Downes was the play maker in the first quarter putting the Lady Kats ahead once and for all. Tori finished with 22. But when Downes wasn’t scoring Autummn Williams was {{more}}and combined they pushed the lead to 28 points in the second quarter when the Lady Tigers of Smithville ran off 6 unanswered points in the second. Autummn also finished the game with 22 points.?? ? ?After the half the Lady Tigers tried to mount a substained run and at one point came within 13 points in the 3rd. Kennedale was playing sloppy ball but McKinley Bostad with 20 points and Tahnia McDaniel with 18 stepped it up and helped put the lead at 27 in the end of the 3rd going into the 4th. Sadie Fleschner tossed in 8 points, Taryn Johnson had 5 and Jasmyn Poe finished with 2.? ? ?Kennedale finished game at 53% shooting with 17 turnovers, 6 blocks, 22 steals, and 41 points off of the fast break. Smithville shot 46% for the game, had 31 turnovers, 5 blocks, 8 steals and 6 points off of the fast break.
? ? ?Kennedale Lady Kats (31-6) will play #7 Mexia ?(35-3)?who beat #5 Krum in an earlier 3A semifinal game. Coach Hughes said that they had “really expected Krum to win” that game. Krum is a “much more disciplined team” and he thought that they would have been more of a problem for the Lady Kats type of play. ?Mexia likes to run the court and he thought that Kats would match up real well with them. This is our game and not many can stay with us.??? ? ?The finals are scheduled for 10 a.m. at the Frank Erwin Center, Austin on Saturday.??
1 2 3 4 Final Smithville 10 19 17 20 66 Kennedale 30 16 27 14 87
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