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Rams dominate Hawks 87-47, ending eight-game losing streak against rivals
In a Southeast Missourian Christmas Tournament preview, the Scott City Rams defeated the Kelly Hawks 87-47 on Tuesday, Dec. 17, in Scott City.
The Rams’ home win breaks an eight-game losing streak against their rivals. The seniors made sure to avenge those losses in a big way.
"I mean, losing to them three times last year, that's pretty disheartening," Scott City senior Kobe Watson said. "So this year, we wanted to come out and make a statement win, and we didn't want them to get any confidence, especially coming into our place to play and go into the Christmas tournament next week. We wanted it to be a bad win. We didn't want them to get any confidence."
The Rams came out the gate charging with a 13-2 run. Kelly clawed back with a 12-4 run of its own but Scott City regained momentum, ending the competitive period leading 28-20.
"We jumped up to a pretty good lead," Watson said. "But after that, we got kind of lackadaisical on defense. On the defensive end, gave a couple of layups and took a couple of bad shots, but in the end, we stuck together, got a bunch of shots around the rim, and played pretty solid defense."
Braeden Walton, who finished the game with a team-high 23 points, hit a buzzer-beating three-point basket to end the opening period. The rest of his points came from inside the paint and free-throw line.
"He had so many good takes where he finished at the rim," Watson said of Walton.
Led by Jaylan Rulo’s 10 points, the Rams outscored the Hawks 25-9 in the second quarter to put the rout in motion with a 53-29 halftime lead. Rulo finished the game with 17 points.
The Rams maintained their pace in the third quarter and created further separation from the Hawks. Watson scored 10 of his 17 points in the third quarter to put Scott City up 78-39 entering an accelerated fourth quarter.
Watson is more known for his three-point shooting prowess, but this time around, he did all of his damage within the arc rather than beyond.
"Growing up in my early years of high school, I was really just a three-point shooter, but I wanted to get out of that," Watson said. "I didn't really just want to be known as that, and with my size, I know I can dominate in the post. And my teammates feed me the ball well, which gives me the opportunity to score a lot."
Max Snider added a pair of buckets in the fourth quarter to finish the game with 14 points. A free throw from Gavin Rogers, who scored all three of his points in the final minutes, pushed the Rams lead to exactly 40.
Kaden Lowery also scored 11 points for the Rams to push his season average to 13.4 points per game. Senior AJ Hayden hit a pair of free throws in the fourth quarter to round out the scoring for Scott City.
Ross Peters led Kelly scorers with 17 points including a perfect 6-for-6 from the charity stripe. Griffin Pass also scored 10 points for the Hawks, followed by six from Skylar Still, five from Preston Appleton, four from Truman White, three from Hunter Kirk, and two from Lane Williams.
The Hawks will host Scott County Central on Thursday before their rematch with the Rams in the Christmas Tournament.
The Rams remain undefeated at 5-0 and will travel north to Perryville to take on St. Vincent on Friday, Dec. 20, for a final tournament tuneup.
"We're on an upward turn on now," Watson said. "I mean everybody's got confidence, everybody on our bench is always excited for us, and everybody in the game has the highest confidence. I mean everybody trusts one another, we play well we mesh really well together, especially being at such a young team, we got a bunch of sophomores, but we mesh really well and we play really good ball together."