Senior Night triumph: Peters and Still propel Kelly Hawks to fourth win in five games

On a night in which four Kelly seniors were honored before Monday's boys' basketball game against Kennett, two of them put the Hawks on their back and carried them to victory.

Ross Peters scored 34 points while Skyler Still put up 23 to lead the Hawks to a 74-61 win over the Indians on Feb. 17.

"I knew we had some fight left," Peters said.

Kelly entered February with only two wins but the Hawks have turned the outlook of their season around, having won four of their last five including the consolation title at the Scott-Miss Tournament on Feb. 7.

"It looks a lot different," Still said. "Coach [Noal Trimmer] said we could even be seated third in districts from our last two weeks. It's going to help us in the districts too, giving us a little bit of extra push, because we've actually got some wins into us now and the team's starting to play a lot better."

Like much of their recent wins, the Hawks have relied on the senior duo to attack the basket more and provide much of the scoring. In the Scott-Miss Tournament, Still and Peters combined to score 46 of Kelly's 78 points against East Prairie, 45 of Kelly's 80 points against Scott County Central, and 43 of Kelly's 73 against Delta.

"We just like to run a two-man game," Peters said. "We find each other down the floor. I find him under the basket, and it's just back and forth like that, and he finishes good at the rim. He's a big dude, so that helps a lot."

Against Kennett, the duo scored 57 of Kelly's 74 points, with juniors Grady Hall adding nine points and Griffin Pass chipping in eight to round it out. The duo took turns dominating the game, with Still putting up 10 points in the second quarter and Peters scoring 10 points in the first quarter and 16 points during a 27-point third-quarter rally that gave the Hawks the lead.

"We start passing the ball a little bit more, getting some better looks, not shooting so many threes outside," Still said. "So better looks to make some more points and play better defense."

It's fitting that the two seniors carrying the Hawks during this run entering the Class 3 District 1 Tournament are those who have their future in college athletics secured. Peters will play baseball at North Central Missouri College and Still recently signed to be a track athlete at Southeast Missouri State.

"It's just like just trying to live out my dreams a little bit and finish out my school year," Peters said, "have fun, leave it all on the floor because this is it, my last one."

Kennett was led by Antonio Flakes, who scored 21 points, and 17 points from Dyson Watson. The duo scored all of the Indians' 18 points to lead 18-15 in the first quarter. Kennett was outscored in each quarter thereafter.

The Hawks will host Caruthersville on Thursday, Feb. 20 for the final game of the regular season. Kelly hosts the C3D1 Tournament on Feb. 24-28 and this current run may be the momentum the Hawks need to make a postseason run, one they didn't make last year when they finished 21-6.

"I think we can go definitely past the first round of district," Still said. "Second round, we'll have to see who we'd get then, but I think we can go further than people think."