Greenville boys ‘weather the storm’ to pick up road win over Kennett

KENNETT – The week-long break between games for the Greenville boys basketball team hardly phased the Bears as they powered past Kennett Saturday in a rescheduled matchup that was postponed due to winter weather earlier this week.

“We’ve had a pretty good year so far,” Greenville head coach Nathan Walk said. “Cooter was our only loss and I was worried about tonight. It’s been exactly a calendar week since we’ve played so I was worried about our legs and being in shape and competing, but we did a really good job today.”

Kennett and Greenville exchanged points early on before Kennett’s D’Shun Wilson put in a three-pointer to take the lead for the Indians at 10-8. It would be the last time Kennett led for the rest of the night.

Kennett (7-12) struggled with fundamentals from the start and Greenville (18-1) capitalized on two days back to practice Thursday and Friday. They out-rebounded and out-shot the Indians as Kennett made just 7 of 21 attempts from the free throw line.

“Greenville is well-coached and they’re a great team, but we’re just playing so bad,” Kennett head coach Noll Billings said. “We’ve got a lot to fix.”

Greenville went on a six-point run before leading 16-12 at the end of the first quarter.

Talan McDaniel immediately kicked off another six-point run to start the second quarter with a layup with two more to follow. Kennett’s Wilson threw in another three-pointer to minimize damage for the Indians and cut the deficit to six points, but the Bears answered it with yet another six unanswered points.

Leading 36-23 entering the third quarter, Greenville tied with Kennett in scoring for the only time at 19 points. Kennett’s were hard-fought and contributed by six players while Easton Evans went to work to score 13 points on his own.

Kennett's D'Shun Wilson (25) looks for an opening around Greenville's defense Saturday afternoon at Kennett High School.Christian Johnson, Delta Dunklin Democrat

“We did a good job of rebounding,” Walk said. “Defensively, I did not think we did a good job. We were slapping and hacking in our zone and Kennett did a good job of applying pressure and not fouling. Some of that I think is just being off.”

“Our effort was there,” he continued, “it’s just in the execution.”

Ty Huffmaster opened the fourth quarter for the Bears as well, this time with a layup and a two-point jumper. After Evans scored 12 more points Greenville took home a 77-55 victory.

Easton Evans paced the Bears with 31 points. He was followed up by Ty Huffmaster with 15, Trey Porter and Peyton Womble each with eight, Talan McDaniel with six and Jeb Huff with five.

Kennett was led in scoring by D’Shun Wilson with 21 points that all came from three-pointers. He was followed by Dyson Watson and Chris Jefferson with six, and Ashton Dismukes and Blake Raspberry with five.

Next, Kennett hosts Senath-Hornersville (14-6) for senior night on Tuesday beginning at 6 p.m.

Greenville goes straight into the OFC Conference Tournament as the No. 1 seed. The Bears drew a bye for the opening round, and Coach Walk is hopeful that Saturday’s contest will help get the Bears back in the groove of things.

“We have a pretty good chance, but our conference is tough so we won’t just roll the ball out there and get a win,” Walk said. “We have a target on our backs now. The secret is out; there for a while we were under the radar, but now we’re going to get everybody’s best shot from here on out.”