Teams seldom look past another and win by 45. The LadyCats from Kerens were focused Tuesday night.
But postgame, the attention turned to 16th-ranked Teague.
Kerens raced past district foe Mildred, 72-27, and now face Teague for the Kiwanis Classic Girls Championship tonight at 6:30 at Navarro College.
“It’s going to be fun,” said LadyCats coach Denise Lincoln, who has her team in line to win a fifth straight Kiwanis title.
The LadyCats have won all but one girls championship since the event went to the girls format in 1998.
“We’re excited,” Lincoln said. “It’s nice to have another ranked team. It’s going to be a good matchup.”
The LadyCats and Lady Eagles meet two, sometimes three or four times a year since aligning once Mildred jumped to Class 2A in 2000. The results, unfortunately for Mildred, were close to the norm Tuesday.
The LadyCats led 13-0 before Ashley Bonner’s layup with 3:50 left in the first got the Lady Eagles on the board. Behind seven points each from Nicole Kelm and Taneque Williams and eight Mildred turnovers, Kerens streaked to a 20-7 lead after one.
First-year coach Ronnie Baker’s Lady Eagles are 3-14 after the loss, with two wins coming in District 14-2A play. The goal is to get better each game, he said, but Tuesday no steps were taken in that direction.
“I didn’t think the effort was there,” said Baker, who took over after a resignation during the first semester of school. “(Kerens is) better, but our effort wasn’t there.”
Bonner did pour in nine points, and Nodia Washington had a team-high 10 rebounds to lead the Lady Eagles.
Other than that, the night belonged to Kerens, which forced 27 turnovers and limited Mildred to 9-of-45 shooting.
“A lot of missed shots create a lot of layups,” Lincoln said. “We run the ball so much.”
Kerens got effort from the top of its roster down. Williams had a game-high 19, and Kelm finished with 16, and had six rebounds and four steals.
Anna Keele rarely looks to shoot, but took advantage of easy buckets under the basket for six second-half points, and she had a team-high nine rebounds. Michell Jordan, last year’s tournament MVP, had nine points and eight rebounds despite getting little second-half playing time.
In the fourth period, Kerens held Mildred to four points, all on free throws, and its lead grew to 40 on a Shalina Haynes jumper with 2:41 left. It made it 66-25 and capped an 11-0 run, one of three times Kerens managed at least a 10-0 run.
