Kelly's Kristen Powell looks to pass around a Charleston defender Saturday morning in Portageville. (Josh Mills/Standard Democrat) [Click to enlarge]

By Chris Pobst, Josh Mills and Andrew Powell ~ sd_sports@yahoo.com

PORTAGEVILLE -- The top-seeded teams rolled in the first round of the girls Class 3, District 1 tournament setting up semifinal action tonight.

State-ranked Portageville will take on New Madrid County Central at 6 p.m. while Kelly and Caruthersville will battle at 7:30 p.m. with the winners playing for the district championship Thursday at 6 p.m.

Kelly 62, Charleston 30

In the first girls contest of the day, the Kelly Lady Hawks rolled into the second round by defeating the Charleston Lady Bluejays by a final score of 62-30.

For both squads it was a battle of the younger players, as the Lady Hawks and the Lady Bluejays each put out inexperienced squads in the first contest of the " tournament.

"I'm very proud of my girls," said Kelly head coach Rod McQuerter. "Like I said, I have seven freshmen and sophomores that have never played a district game in their life. They came out and busted their butts for their seniors today, and I'm very proud of that.

"To have 19 wins and to have a conference championship this year and still playing in districts, I just credit it all to our girls' attitudes," he added. "They've been very positive, and a fun group to work with."

Kelly was led by Debra Hall with 19 points and Kayla Cissell who finished with 13.

Londyn Backfisch chipped in with 10 points, while Kristen Powell had nine.

Despite the loss, Charleston head coach Michael Minner came away with more positives than negatives from the season.

"I'm so proud of the kids," said Minner. "We finished 3-17, but we battled our tails off. We played hard tonight all night. We give everything we have, and that's all we ask for from our kids.

"We say goodbye to Raven Walker, who's a senior," he added. "We appreciate her four years of hard work. But other than that, we've got everybody back next year. We're going to try to come back next year and try to build off of the good things that we've taken out of this season.

The Lady Bluejays were led by Taylor Duenne with nine points, while teammate Cedrica Rodgers helped out with seven points of her own.

Caruthersville 66, East Prairie 43

The East Prairie Lady Eagles lost to the Caruthersville Lady Tigers, 66-43.

East Prairie was led by Madelyn Branam with 10 points. Whitley Rundles and senior Megan Britt each finished with 8 points, respectively.

"Certainly our season has improved for East Prairie," Lady Eagles head coach Steven Douglas said. "We have historically not been very good and we had the best record we've had in 15-plus years."

The Lady Eagles finished the season at 6-15 improving from a 4-15 season last year.

"I thought the girls have shown a lot of improvement," Douglas said. "I think towards the end of the year, we played a lot better than we did early."

The Lady Tigers' Kyisha Ricks scored 30 points to lead all scorers, while Leola Hubbard added 23 points. The No. 3 seed Caruthersville Lady Tigers will take on the No. 2 seed Kelly Hawks tonight at 7:30 p.m.

NMCC 56, Scott City 45

The New Madrid County Central Lady Eagles advanced to the semifinal round on Saturday, taking care of the Scott City Lady Rams, 56-45.

NMCC led 36-16 at halftime.

Jasmine Flennoy led both squads with 21 points. Page Jimerson added nine points, while Shameika and Tameika Williams both finished with eight points apiece.

Scott City was led by Stephanie and Emily Essner who finished with 11 points, respectively. Becky Holder finished with 10 points. The No. 4 seed Lady Eagles will now face the No. 1 seed Portageville Lady Bulldogs tonight at 6 p.m.

Portageville 65, Kennett 29

The top-seeded Portageville Lady Bulldogs rolled in their district tournament debut, beating the Kennett Lady Indians 65-29.

The Lady 'Dogs were lead by Brittney Walker who came away with 28 points while Kellye Penn added 13 and one 3-pointer. The Lady Indians were lead by Sharika Walls with eight.