MARCHING ON: PEP TALK HELPS BRAVETTES PUT NAYLOR IN THE COFFIN

SIKESTON -- Scott County Central High girls basketball coach Semona Penrod had some choice words for her team at halftime of Monday night's Class 1A Regional game against Naylor.

"I told them a lot of things (at halftime). I probably can't tell you exactly what they were," said Penrod. "I had a talk about them overlooking the other team and if they played around, we could lose it."

Thus properly motivated, the Bravettes pulled away from a tenuous 30-28 halftime lead against heavy underdog Naylor and coasted to a 67-41 victory at the Sikeston High Field House.

The Bravettes, who improved their record to 16-11, will play Ste. Genevieve Valle (9-16) at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday in the sectional round at Poplar Bluff High.

Still, despite the 26-point margin of victory, Penrod did not come away very impressed with her team's overall play.

"We did better in the second half, but overall I wasn't pleased," she said. "I don't think our heads were where they needed to be.

"We had no intensity. We just weren't mentally ready. We took them lightly and we had a big talk about that (before the game). Luckily we out-talented them enough."

Vontrice Blackmon led the Bravettes offensively with 18 points, 16 coming in the second half. Danika Kidd, Ashley Whitson and freshman Brandy Miller all added 11 points.

Naylor, which finished the season at 12-11, got 15 points from Kristy Wertenberger and 10 from Crystal McGee.

The Lady Eagles, while not nearly as quick as the Bravettes, were able to pound the ball inside well in the first half.

Trailing 16-10 after one quarter, Naylor took a 20-18 lead midway through the second period. Whitson's tip-in with just under three minutes left before halftime put Scott Central back ahead 23-22, but the Lady Eagles were still down by only two at the intermission.

"Naylor did what they had to do," Penrod said. "They have a lot of big bodies and they got the ball inside a lot."

But the second half was a totally different story. The Bravettes took control right off the bat by scoring the first eight points of the third quarter to go ahead 38-30.

After Naylor pulled to within 38-32, a 6-0 Scott Central run gave the Bravettes a 44-30 lead and pretty much wiped out any upset hopes the Lady Eagles might have had.

Scott Central led 48-34 after three quarters and ended up winning going away.

"It's good that we won, but we'll definitely have to play a lot better if we want to keep winning," said Penrod.

Next up for Scott Central will be a Valle team that won its district last week despite being seeded just third and then knocked off Van Buren 45-35 Monday night.