Kennett ends Perryville's season in C4D1 tournament

FREDERICKTOWN, Mo. — Two teams are starting the postseason and looking to snap a losing streak.

Someone was bound to snap their skid.

Dyson Watson scored 31 points to lead the Kennett Indians to a 78-65 win over the Perryville Pirates in the quarterfinal round of the Class 4 District 1 Tournament on Monday, March 3, in Fredericktown, Mo.

Sire Thomas scored 12 points for the Indians while Antonio Flakes added 11 points. Watson wasted no time powering the Tribe’s offense, as he scored 13 points in the first quarter to give Kennett a 20-12 lead.

“He's a good player,” Perryville head coach Chris Hahn said of Watson. “He averages 22 (points) a game. I just thought our effort wasn't there most of the game guarding the ball. So he was able to kind of slither in and do his thing.”

Thomas took the reigns in the second quarter by putting up 10 of his 12 points during the waning minutes of the first half to increase the Kennett lead to 46-27 at halftime.

Three-point shooting was the only thing keeping the Pirates in the game. Eli Schott scored all nine of his points in the first half on 3-of-3 shooting from beyond the arc. Waylon Huber and Jake Cissell also drained a three-point bucket in the first half.

Watson shot a perfect 6-of-6 from the free throw line in the third quarter, as the Indians' lead grew to 65-41 entering the fourth quarter. Overall, Kennett shot 16-of-23 from the charity stripe.

Feeling the end of their season creeping on them, the Pirates went berserk in the fourth quarter, outscoring the Indians 24-13. Carter Blechle scored six of his eight points, Karston Schilli put up six of his 10 points and Evan Hayden led the charge with seven of his 17 points in a desperate rally that at point brought Kennett’s lead down to 10 points.

Hann said effort was behind the comeback attempt but it was too little too late for Perryville.

“We just didn't play with any urgency or toughness or effort,” Hann said .”In the first three quarters, I felt like we were just kind of out there. Credit to our guys, we were down almost 30, and we had five, seven guys were thrown out there, and they were playing their butts off, kind of made a little bit of a comeback. I wish we could have done it earlier.”

Kennett wins its 10th game of the season for the first time since 2021. The Indians will take on Dexter in the district semifinals. The Bearcats won 68-60 in double-overtime on Feb. 14, which started the Indians’ five-game losing streak.

Perryville’s season ends with a 10-16 record and a seven-game losing streak. Before the skid, the Pirates were coming off beating St. Vincent, and winning 10 games for the first time since 2019.

"I just feel like the schedule got pretty tough," Hahn said. "Also, when you haven't beaten your rival in a long time and you finally do, I felt like we got kind of complacent, didn't have the same energy, the same enthusiasm for what we're doing. But it's a growing learning process for us. They won two games last year. We're just trying to get it hopefully one day, we're consistent every day with our effort, and our kids get better."

Blechle, Schott, Cissell, and Hayden saw their basketball careers come to an end. Cissell leaves Perryville with the school's three-point shooting record. During their senior day a month ago, each one of them mentioned beating St. Vincent as their best memory.

"They were huge," Hahn said. "Your seniors can kind of make or break what you're doing. And we had a really good group of four kids.

"You come in and usually your older kids kind of can be hard-headed and not really buy in. I think they tried their best to buy in and learn and do the things I asked. When you're only with kids for four months, that's a big deal, if you can just try to get them there, just to work hard. A good group of kids too. They're awesome people. We're going to miss them."

Up Next

The winner between Kennett and Dexter will advance to the final round of the district tournament. On the other side of the bracket are top-seeded Notre Dame and Fredericktown.

Fredericktown advanced by beating Doniphan 65-52 on Monday, behind Tucker Rentzel's 23 points and David Slinkard's 11 points.

Doniphan senior Emitt Jones scored a game-high 27 points in the final game of his career. The Dons finished the season with a 14-13 record, an eight-game improvement over last season.

Notre Dame enters the tournament 13-13 led by the sharp-shooting senior duo of Brett Dohogne and Kolton Johnson.