?
Friday night the Kennedale faithful showed up in force to root on the Wildcats and Lady Kats in a district match against Dunbar. For those who stayed through both games, they got their money?s worth as the Kats just won 56-55 and the Cats lost only their third game of the season to a late surge by Dunbar. 75-66. {{more: continue …}}
?
Lady Kat game story ?
?
The Lady Kats lost the first and fourth quarters but it was their dominance in the second and third quarter that helped fend off a determined Dunbar team.
?
Q1 – Dunbar started with a 6-1 run to take an early lead. The Kats responded with their own 8-2 run and took a brief 9-8 lead but Dunbar outscored the Kats 10-4 in the next few minutes to finish the quarter up 18-13.
?
Q2 ? While Dunbar held the lead through most of the period it was Kennedale that dominated the boards outscoring Dunbar 12-6 during the period. The Kats scored unanswered points at the end of the period to claim a one point lead at 25-24.
?
Q3 ? This one belong to Kennedale as the Lady Kats never lost the lead gained in Q2 and outscored Dunbar 24-11. This gave the Kats a strong 14 point lead going into the final period at 49-35. Over the middle two periods Kennedale had outscored Dunbar 36-17.
?
Q4 ? Despite their big lead, Kennedale went cold in the fourth. Scoring only 2 points halfway through the period while Dunbar put up 10 points to whittle the down 6. The Kats stopped the bleeding over the next several minutes while building the lead back up to 10 at 56-46 but that would be all the Kennedale had. In the last few minutes of the game Dunbar went on a 9 point run to come within a few seconds of taking the lead amd the game, eventually falling 56-55.
?
Scoring big for Kennedale was Sanieya Anderson with 18 points followed by Trinitee Warren with 14, Macarkhalia Briscoe 8, Tawny Smith-Knox 7, Martin Kelsey 5, Chyan Saffore 2 and Morgan Coleman 2.
?
Kennedale moved to 10-0 in district play and 18-13 overall while Dunbar fell to 6-3 and 13-16 and third place in District 9-4A. Kennedale has a two game lead over Benbrook (9-2, 16-12) with just two games remaining for Kennedale. Tonight Kennedale plays at Diamond Hill (0-8, 0-18) and then Friday night the Kats play Benbrook to close out the regular season.
?
Wildcat game story ??
Senior #52 Tre Jones prepares to shoot in game against Dunbar as senior #32 Jaden Smith readies for
rebound. Dunbar upended Kennedale in the game on Friday 75-66
The Dunbar Wildcats showed up at the Kennedale Wildcat Den on Friday night, demanded and got a share of the 9-4A district title by taking home a 75-66 victory.?
For those who had turned up in early January to watch Kennedale defeat Dunbar by 20, the results were a little shocking this time around. But these are two top teams in the state with Kennedale at #6 and Dunbar at #7 and it was going to be hard for one to take two straight wins over the other.
?
This was Kennedale?s game through 3 quarters of play with Kennedale on top 52-47 at the end of three and? having led most of the game. But, the short of it all, the 4th quarter was all Dunbar. Dunbar barged into the lead and the game by outscoring the Wildcats 28-14 in final period.
?
This was the game everyone expected of these two top 10 4A teams. These was a battle not of offenses but of two solid defensive teams. Steals, deflections and blocks controlled the game and kept either team from dominating the other for most all of the game.?
They both matched up evenly with little separation in stats. In turnovers it was Kennedale 21-20, blocks 7-4 to Dunbar, steals 13-12 to Kennedale, defensive rebounds 28-27 to Dunbar, offensive rebounds 15-14 to Dunbar and second chance points 13-11 to Kennedale.?
?
But where Dunbar was more effective was in points off of turnovers 15-9 and points per possession. These became crucial at the end of the game.?
?
Q1 – Kenendale won the 1st quarter 16-12. There were two ties during the quarter at 2-2 and again at 9-9 but Kennedale kept the lead going into the next period.?
?
Q2 ? Again Kennedale won this quarter 22-19 for a 38-31 halftime score. At one point Kennedale held a 12 point lead before allowing Dunbar to go on a 7-2 run to close the gap at the end of the quarter.
?
Q3 ? Kennedale did build the leads back up to 9 but it was downhill after that as Dunbar scored 11 unanswered points to take 43-40 lead midway through the quarter. Kennedale did tie it up at 43 and and scored nine points in the final 2 minutes of the period to retake the lead by 52-47. However, Dunbar won their first quarter match-up 16-14 and gained some confidence moving into the decisive final period.
?
Q4 ? This one belong to Dunbar as they outscored Kennedale 28-14. A little over a minute into the 4th, Dunbar forged a tie at 52-52. The Cats fought back to regain a three point lead but that was quickly erased as Kennedale went cold and Dunbar dominated the net and winning 75-66.
?
For Kennedale, leading the Cats in scoring, was Scott Whorley with 15 followed by Sherrod Poe and Tre Jones, each with 13. Others were Jaden Smith 9, Blake Taylor 6, Robert Corbett 4, Jamal Downes 2, Versie Hodges 2 and Jamal Marshall 2.
?
Kennedale moves to 27-3, 7-1 while Dunbar improves to 13-12, 7-1. This week Kennedale plays at Diamond Hill (4-24, 0-7) tonight and then home against Benbrook (7-16, 3-5) on Friday night, both games are at 8 p.m.
?
?
Comments are closed.