KELLY BRINGS DEPTH, MOMENTUM INTO ITS OPENING ROUND GAME AGAINST SCOTT CENTRAL

Kelly takes a 4-2 record and a happy coach into the holidays and the U-High Tournament.

After a 1-2 start, Kelly picked up momentum with a 3-0 week before its break.

The Hawks buzzed through Bloomfield, Oak Ridge and Clearwater in its perfect week.

Next on the agenda for Kelly, the 11th seed in the tournament, will be a 6 p.m. first-round date Monday with sixth-seeded Scott County Central.

"Right now we've hit our stride," said Kelly coach Kent Mangels. "We played three good games (last) week. We're starting to see some good combinations. We're starting to play a little better. Offensively, we had struggled a little bit, but we stepped it up the last three games."

After averaging 49 points through the first three games a win over Bell City and losses to Oran and Jackson Kelly averaged nearly 73 points the final three.

In their last game, a 70-67 win over Clearwater, the Hawks enjoyed their best shooting of the season, including a season-high nine 3 pointers.

While point guard Jamie Essner has been the Hawks' most consistent scorer at 13 points per game, Kelly has gotten big numbers from other players.

Forward Daniel Seyer is averaging around 10 points a game but hit for 25 against Oak Ridge. According to Mangels, guard Jeremy Skelton had not done much offensively before hitting for 23 points, including five 3-pointers, against Clearwater.

A pair of 6-foot 3 players, center Josh Glastetter and forward Quinton Shaefer, round out Kelly's starting five.

"Each day it could be a different kid depending on the kind of day we're having and the kind of day he's having," said Mangels. "But by no way do we have a kid that's going to step up and score 20 points a night."

Kelly has 12 players on the varsity and usually all 12 see some playing time each game. The Hawks' approach has been to keep fresh bodies on the floor and see if opponents fatigue in the second half.

Brandon Sander and 6-5 Matt Seabaugh have played integral parts off the bench and a pair of sophomores forwards, Barry Ziegler and Michael Romas, seem to have sparked the team since being added to the varsity mix.

"In reality we were hoping to be 3-3 at this point," said Mangels. "Going in 4-2, I'm proud this group really came on. The last seven to eight days our practices got so much sharper. I think the sophomores coming up sharpened us up. I think some older kids saw they had to practice harder if they wanted to keep their playing time."

Mangels knows his team will have its hands full with Scott County Central, especially with the high-scoring tandem of Jreece Johnson and Todd Blissett.

"We respect Scott County, but at the same time I think we can play with them and even beat them," said Mangels. "The first seven are a pretty good group of teams. On any given night Scott County can give people a lot of trouble."