Green Wave take top seed into Bootheel Conference tourney

The Bootheel Conference basketball tournament is here again and the Malden Green Wave are the top seed heading into the event which begins 10:15 a.m. Saturday with the first of three first-round games taking place at Hayti, the site of the competition.

The Green Wave will open up play 6:15 p.m. Tuesday when they play the winner of the 10:15 Saturday contest between No. 4 Portageville and No. 5 South Pemiscot. The other bracket features No. 3 Senath-Hornersville against No. 6 Campbell at 12:45 p.m. Saturday followed by No. 2 Caruthersville and No. 7 Hayti at 2 p.m.

The winners of the two latter games meet in an 8:45 p.m. semifinal.

The final is Friday, Feb. 3 at 8:30 p.m.

“Having the top seed in the tournament puts a huge target on our back,” Malden head coach Mike Kilgore said. “We tied with Caruthersville with one regular loss, but we won the head-to-head match-up. We know (Caruthersville), along with the other conference teams, will be coming for the championship. Senath-Hornersville beat us at the buzzer and the other teams played us close.

“It's anybody's tournament and we have to play up to our potential to win it.”