C3D1: Portageville’s comeback falls short against Senath-Hornersville

NEW MADRID, Mo. — Portageville’s season came to an end at the hands of Senath-Hornersville in the opening round of the MSHSAA Class 3, District 1 Tournament at New Madrid County Central High School on Monday, Feb. 20.

After trailing the entire game, the fifth-seeded Bulldogs (15-12) made a furious comeback in the fourth quarter, but ultimately fell short 53-53 to the fourth-seeded Lions (18-8).

“Senath[-Hornersville] does a good job in their zone,” said Portageville coach TJ Smith. “They are active and do a great job of chasing shooters off the 3-point line. Coach [Kurt] Penn did a great job of having them prepared. It took us a while to find the gaps to drive and once we did we had a shot.”

Jamarion Smith led Portageville with 18 points, while Connor Sells contributed nine. The loss concluded TJ Smith’s first season as the Bulldog’s head coach after spending several as an assistant.

“This season was a fun one for me,” TJ Smith said. ”Tiring, exciting, almost every adjective can explain it. But at the end of it, it was a good one. We left a few games out there that I think we could’ve won, but for the most part, we competed our tails off night in and night out. This group of seniors did a tremendous job of having my back from the get-go and that went a long way throughout the year. I’m so thankful for them to be my first group.

I’m excited going forward. Our numbers were good throughout the program. We’ve got to get after it this summer to help us succeed, and I think we’ve got the kids for the job.”

Senath-Hornersville was led by Jaxon Layne with 18 and Amador Luna with 11.

“We go as [Layne] goes most nights and today was just another example of that,” said Lions’ coach Kurt Penn. “I thought we really came out and played well. We executed our defensive game plan almost to perfection in the first half. Now we might not have scored very much but Portageville is a very good defensive team. So going in we knew we had to make it even tougher for them to score since it would be tough for us to score. We play our best basketball when we hang our hat on defense.”

The team will face top-seeded New Madrid County Central (18-7) in the semifinals on Wednesday, Feb. 22 at 5 p.m.

“We wanted to come out and prove some doubters wrong today,” Penn continued. “We felt a little bit disrespected as the No. 5 seed.”

The Eagles are the fourth-ranked team in Class 3 and are led by the standout combo of Jadis Jones and BJ Williamson.

__SENATH-HORNERSVILLE 53, PORTAGEVILLE 52__

Portageville 4 10 11 27 — 52

Senath 9 8 17 19 — 53

__Portageville (52) —__ Jamarion Smith 18, Connor Sells 10, Shane Townsend 9, Connor Jefferies 7, Thomas Frakes 3, Brandon West 3, Aaron Dunlap 2. FG: 18. FT: 12-15. F: 12. (3-pointers: Townsend 2, West 1, Smith 1.)

__Senath-Hornersville (53) —__ Jaxon Layne 18, Amador Luna 11, Spencer Goff 8, Rico Gonzalez 6, Christian Garza 6, Mason Williams 4. FG: 21. FT: 9-14. F: 15. (3-pointers: Gonzalez 2. Fouled out: Gonzalez.)