Bootheel Conference Tournament postponed due to inclement weather

The 2023 Bootheel Conference Tournament, hosted by Hayti High School, has been postponed as a result of the winter storm that rolled through the region earlier this week.

The delay pushed back four first round games of the girls tournament which were scheduled to be played Tuesday evening, including (1) Portageville vs (8) Caruthersville, (4) Campbell vs (5) Hayti, (2) Holcomb vs (7) South Pemiscot, and (3) Malden vs (6) Senath-Hornersville. Thursday night's girls semifinals were cancelled as well.

Two semifinal games scheduled for Tuesday night were postponed in the boys bracket: (1) Malden vs (4) Portageville, and (3) Senath-Hornersville vs (2) Caruthersville.

Going into the boys tournament as the No. 1 seed, Malden (14-6) is playing with confidence with a glimpse of the conference championship in sight.

At this point in the season, the Green Wave has already racked up more wins than the team has since 2018, and there’s still a long way to go.

“We need to come out and just get a win,” Malden head coach Mike Kilgore said after the Green Wave’s win over Kennett last week. “Now we know what that side (winning) feels like again, and we just want to stay consistent and make sure we’re playing our best basketball from here on out.”

Coming in seeded No. 4 in the girls' bracket, Campbell stands at 8-6 for the season and expects a challenge start to finish when the tournament gets back on track.

“We got the fourth seed in the tournament which was no surprise,” Campbell girls basketball head coach Laura Foster said. “We struggled against the three teams that beat us in conference regular season.”

“We are excited and eager to get the tournament started and see if we can battle our way through each game to get to the finals,” she continued. “I believe it is going to be an interesting tournament since we will probably go play games with not much practice over the last couple days. I believe all teams are going to have to overcome some adversity when the tournament does get started, so I guess we will see who is going to overcome the challenge and finish on top.”

With snow days across the Bootheel once again Wednesday, teams can’t practice and uncertainties are growing.

For the third-seeded Senath-Hornersville boys basketball team (14-6), there is hope in this bitterly cold air, however. The Lions have won more games already this season than they have since 2009 and they’re not planning on stopping any time soon.

“For us, we are looking forward to the opportunity to make history again this year,” Senath-Hornersville head coach Kurt Penn said. “So far we have 14 wins which is the most at Senath-Hornersville since 2004, that is just a testament to how hard our players have worked this year.”

“Now we have our sights set on giving ourselves the best shot at winning the Bootheel Conference Tournament for the first time since 1997,” Penn continued. “We have a young team this year, we just want to keep getting better each game at a time and hopefully that will lead to more success in the future.”

An updated bracket with new game dates and times will be published to Semoball as it is made available.