By Tyler F. Thompson (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
Kickapoo is one game away from adding to its record collection of 13 Blue & Gold championships after beating SPS rival Hillcrest 54-40 in the Blue Division semifinals on Saturday.
Kickapoo’s Jackson Shorter led all scorers with his 18-point performance.
The win now pits the Chiefs against Logan-Rogersville for the Blue Division championship at 8:30 p.m. Monday.
“We knew they (Hillcrest) were going to come out and try to contain us and not let us go on our runs. But we were just focused on defense, because we didn’t want Kyrese [Simpson] or Taner [Hicks] to go off. And we didn’t want the other guys to have big games where they score in the double digits, either,” Shorter said.
This marks the first Blue Division title game for Kickapoo since they defeated Springfield -Catholic 62-49 three years ago.
Kickapoo, after taking a few minutes to find its rhythm on offense, did what it needed to do on defense.
The defensive scheme illuminated the game plan.
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“They have two guards who are really good with Kyrese and Taner. They are tough to guard because they can make shots at all three levels,” Kickapoo head coach Mitch McHenry said. “We wanted to make it tough on them. They do a good job of sticking to their game plan and slowing the game down with methodical possessions.”
The trio was relatively silent for most of the three quarters, before Romero found his perimeter stroke in the fourth after early foul trouble.
Hillcrest led at the end of the first, but Kickapoo found its juice in the second, creating the necessary and much-needed separation, as they led 22-15 behind the play of Shorter and his counterpart Elijah Nabors.
“I felt like we did a good job of challenging shots. We have been locked into what we need to do all year long and [have been] good defensively,” McHenry said. “There were some times where we had some lapses and they got going, but overall, we did a good job.”
In the third, the Chiefs went high-low a bit more when not kicking out the ball to Nabors on the wings as he hit two from downtown.
Kickapoo benefitted from Romero’s foul trouble, and with Simpson being contained, the stars aligned on this night.
Shorter and Nabors accounted for 44 percent of the Chiefs scoring.
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“He does a great job. He is our most experienced player,” McHenry said of Shorter. “He is playing at high level right now.”
In the Chiefs’ quarterfinal win, Shorter tossed up 18 points and 15 rebounds.
“Tonight, he was pushing a double-double again,” McHenry said.
Scoring for Kickapoo: Nabors – 6; Reese Kimrey – 14; Brayden Rubidoux – 6; Levi Phillips – 4; Vincent Mhire – 2; Brock Thompson – 4.
Scoring for Hillcrest: Romero – 11; Hicks – 13; Simpson -4; Jayven Jones – 4; Ethan Weaver – 8.
