12A Saturday, April 1, 2017 • bransontrilakesnews.com Branson Tri-Lakes news

By Pat Daileypdailey@bransontrilakesnews.com

Amanda Kearney’s bio as a signee for the Hard-ing (Arkansas) women’s basketball program reveals some tidbits about her that go beyond her assort-ment of record-breaking stats at Branson. For instance, she is a Nation-al Honor Society member, enjoys Christmas puzzles, briely gave gym-nastics a try and her right foot is one size larger than her let foot. “I have shoe problems,” Kearney said, adding she’s not sure she should have given out some of her secrets. “I couldn’t igure out any-thing interesting to write about myself.” Kearney irst started shooting hoops at the age of 4 and took to it naturally. It’s doubtful gymnastics would have ever interrupted her basketball career, but she enjoyed tumbling as a irst-grader. “I did it just for something to do,” Kearney said. “It was good. I really liked it. But I got too tall.” With Kearney, now 5-foot-11, always being taller

than most of her teammates, a pivotal point in her career came early on when she wasn’t designated a post player simply because of her height. “I guess I always liked handling the ball,” she said. “I kind of played everywhere, but liked the point more.” For Kearney, playing the point helped equal 2,166 career points and the most distinguished ca-reer of any Lady Pirate ever on the hardwood. Now a three-time All-Tri Lakes Player of he Year, she turned in a senior season that included a 22.2 scor-ing average, 127 rebounds, 121 assists, 100 steals and 55 3-pointers. Kearney’s record collection also includes Bran-son records for single-game points and single-sea-son points. Playing the point over the years also surely will serve her well while making the transition to col-lege ball at Harding. She won’t have to worry about making a position change like many players of her stature. “Going to play college ball, I wouldn’t be strong enough or big enough to play the post,” Kearney

said. “It’s always been good to be a taller guard to be able to see over people and pass over people.” Kearney joins a Lady Bison program fresh from a 31-4 season that was highlighted by a berth in the NCAA D-II Tournament Final Four. It’s the best season Harding has ever enjoyed on the hardwood.

Gymnastics’ loss, hoops’ gainin Player of The Year Kearney

Contact Sports Editor Pat Dailey at 417-334-3161 ext. 106 or e-mail pdailey@bransontrilakesnews.com

Pat Dailey | Branson Tri-Lakes News

By Pat Daileypdailey@bransontrilakesnews.com

Korey Robinette knew better than to get too excited too early ater initially receiving a pleas-ant surprise with his unoicial winning time in the 100 at hursday’s Branson Invitational. he Reeds Spring senior ran away from the ield with what was irst reported as a 10.69. “I heard a guy ask the (clock operator) in my lane what my time was and she said, ‘10.69,’” Robinette said. “I asked her, ‘Did you say 10.69?’ I was thinking, ‘Oh my gosh!’ If that’s right, I’m already running better than last year at State, when I ran a 10.72 oicial time (to in-ish second in Class 2).” All things considered, Robinette wasn’t sur-

prised to learn his oicial time of 11.05 hurs-day. His start and the weather weren’t ideal. “When I started, my knee sort of buckled over,” he said. “So, I kind of stumbled. It just threw me of. Overall, it was a good race.” Robinette ran a 10.99 in time trials, but coach Craig Barr seeded him at 11.44. hus, he was assigned to lane six. He didn’t mind not be-ing in one of the two middle lanes. “At State last year, I was in lane one, so it wasn’t too diferent,” he said. Robinette drew motivation from Benton-ville West’s Jadon Jackson, seeded at 10.74. “When I found out he ran a 10.7, I thought, ‘hat’s pretty fast,’” Robinette said. “I want to know who is faster than me or close to the same

speed as I am. hen I tell them, ‘Good luck,’ and then that’s who I’m looking to beat.” While running the anchor leg in Reeds Spring’s 4 x 100 relay, Robinette received the baton with the Wolves a distant second to Wil-lard. Robinette nearly made up all of 20 yards on his Tigers counterpart, before inishing sec-ond (45.81). Willard won with a 45.48. With an eye on the 40-degree temperatures, the Wolves kept their workload to a minimum to do their best to avoid any pulled muscles. “I tell all my teammates, ‘Make sure you warm up 45 minutes before your race,’” Rob-inette said. “Ater what happened to (former Wolves speedster Hunter Flett) last year, I don’t want that to happen to anyone again.”

ALL-TRI LAKES GIRLS BASKETBALL | Branson’s career scoring leader completes hat trick with third Player of The Year recognition

BRANSON TRACK INVITATIONAL | Running in sixth lane, Reeds Spring sprinter breaks away from the field to capture gold medal in 100

Robinette faster when it matters

All-Tri Lakes Basketball

The All-Tri Lakes Girls Basketball Team includes (front row, l-r) Blue Eye’s Kenedi Larson, Branson’s Amanda Kearney, Reeds Spring’s Kalena Asbill, (back row, l-r) Forsyth’s Maycee Lumley, Branson’s Lauren Garri-son, Forsyth’s Lacey Moore, Blue Eye’s Kohnnar Patton and Branson’s Terra Utz-DePriest.

Pat Dailey | Branson Tri-Lakes News

Korey Ronbinete pulls up after win-ning the 100 at the Branson Invitation-al on Thursday. For more results and photos, see page 11A.

Baseballphoto

gallery

page 10A

By Pat Daileypdailey@bransontrilakesnews.com

It’s no accident Kohnnar Patton burst upon the scene this season as a unique freshman phenom ca-pable of creating her own shot of the dribble. Patton’s of-season workouts at Blue Eye have included 6 a.m. workout sessions, with one of the emphasises being moves to the basket. “I’ll have three individual moves to work on,” she said. “Ater I get those down and start to use them in a game, I pick three more.” Patton had enough moves to average 18.4 points a game, to along with 96 assists and 94 steals. Patton, an All-Tri Lakes choice, is being com-pared to former Blue Eye great Tag Morris. “I feel honored when people say that,” Patton said. “I know I have to keep working to be as good as she was. She contacts me and we talk basketball.

Patton drawingcomparisonsto Morris

All-TRI LAKES — cont. on 10A

All-Tri Lakes GirlsBasketball history

Player of he Year recipients:

Year Player School 2016-17 Amanda Kearney Branson2015-16 Amanda Kearney Branson2014-15 Amanda Kearney Branson2013-14 Autumn Flaugh Reeds Spring2012-13 Moriah Dapprich Branson2011-12 Kayla Hickey Blue Eye2010-11 Lainie Bishop Hollister2009-10 Cailynn Hayter Branson2008-09 Kelsey Hullinger Blue Eye2006-07 Brianna Fugitt Blue Eye2005-06 Morgan Hickey Blue Eye1998-99 Lindsy McDowell Blue Eye1997-98 Melanie Narancich Blue Eye1996-97 Amy Pike Blue Eye

— No All-Tri Lakes teams were an-nounced for the 2000-05 and 2007-08 seasons.

KEARNEY — cont. on 10A

•Tri-LakesArea girls

leaders, page 10A

Tigers’rally onerun short

By Pat Daileypdailey@bransontrilakesnews.com

SPRINGFIELD — Both Jenner Steele and Jackson Bekemeier would have dearly liked their inal at-bat back Tuesday at Springield Catholic. Two of Hollister’s best hitters, nei-ther got a swing in against the inal pitch they saw, as the Tigers’ four-run seventh-inning rally fell short in a 5-4 COC Small Schools setback at the hands of the Irish. In the seventh, Steele struck out looking with the bases loaded and Bekemeier was drilled in the leg by a pitch with two outs and the potential tying run on second base. Steele took a fast ball for his third strike, as Catholic closer Will Duf painted the inside corner “I would try to foul it of,” Steele said when asked what he would do with the same pitch. “(he home plate umpire) has a wide strike zone. hat’s good and he had been calling that way all game. He was consistent with it. So, it was a pitch I should have tried to foul of and then get another pitch down the mid-dle. I should have kept ighting. “I wish I could have helped the team out. But I struggled with the fast ball tonight.” Steele has been exceptional deliver-ing hits with runners in scoring posi-tion. He had a career-high seven RBIs versus Carthage on Saturday. But he was 0-for-2 with runners on base op-posite Catholic. “I had two opportunities today,” Steele said. “It frustrated me a lot. I was expecting to hit the ball in the gap and drive in a couple of runs. But I didn’t execute. We’ll face them again in Dis-tricts and I’ll do better next time.” Bekemeier stepped to the plate looking to tie things up. He fouled of a pitch to make the count 1-2, before being hit by the next pitch on his let thigh. “I was hoping to get one down the pipe so I could groove one into a hole out there and drive in the run,” Beke-meier said. “So, it was frustrating. hings happen, though, and you can’t complain about getting a free base.” Hollister (4-3 overall and 0-1 in the COC) was shut out over the irst six innings by Irish right-hander Mason Dickemann. With Dickemann reach-ing 106 pitches, he was done ater six innings. Catholic relievers struggled throw-ing strikes, walking in a pair of runs. he Irish botched a possible double play on what turned out to be a ield-er’s choice by Landon Farquhar, allow-ing two Tigers to score.

With two runners on and two outs, Duf inally got out of the jam with a swinging strikeout. “We competed,” Bekemeier said. “But it’s still a loss and a loss that hurts. hey’re a good team and we’re a good team. We wanted to show what we have. We fought to the last pitch. We competed, even though we didn’t exe-cute.” By all accounts, Hollister’s efort was much improved from a day earlier

in a 6-4 loss to Clever. “We came out (Monday) think-ing we were going to run-rule them,” Steele said. “We were lackadaisical and ended up getting our butts whipped. Today, we had to make a statement against these guys, considering they’re in our District. So, it felt good to come back at the end, ater we started out slow. We fought back.” Bekemeier gave Hollister a ighting chance against Catholic by relieving

Farquhar during Catholic’s ive-run second. He blanked the Irish the rest of the way. “I felt good about that,” Bekemeier said. “Coming into the game, I strug-gled a little bit throwing strikes. But af-ter that I was able to settle in and keep the ball low. I wasn’t focusing so much on getting a strikeout as I was getting ground balls. I’ve got a great defense behind me and trust them 100 per-cent.”

HOLLISTER BASEBALL | Bekemeier shuts out Catholic over final four innings, but Irish still prevail

10A Saturday, April 1, 2017 • bransontrilakesnews.com Branson Tri-Lakes news

INSIDE

Trey Dorlan follows through to second base from right field to try to gun down a Cathollic baserunner on Tuesday.

Pat Dailey | Branson Tri-Lakes News

Payton Weber fields a ground ball at second base.

Pat Dailey | Branson Tri-Lakes News

Jackson Bekemeier eyes a delivery home.

Pat Dailey | Branson Tri-Lakes News

TRI-LAKES AREA

GIRLS BASKETBALL LEADERS

Lauren Garrison will enter her senior season with 641 career points for Branson.

Shann Swift | Swift Shots

ScoringName TP Avg.Amanda Kearney, Branson 667 22.2Kohnar Patton, Blue Eye 496 18.4Lacey Moore, Forsyth 465 17.9Maycee Lumley, Forsyth 333 12.8Lauren Garrison, Branson 314 10.5Kalena Asbill, Reeds Spring 267 10.3Kenedi Larson, Blue Eye 272 10.1Terra Utz-DePriest, Branson 256 9.1Alexa Bekemeier, Hollister 225 9.0Ayshia Betloch, Blue Eye 238 8.8Ashton Davidson, Forsyth 203 8.1K.K. homas, Hollister 195 7.8Raven Ross, Hollister 164 6.6C. Reaves-Eakins, Reeds Spring 170 6.5Adie Forester, Blue Eye 164 6.1Abby Rudd, Reeds Spring 142 5.7Keri Johnson, Reeds Spring 133 5.5Katelyn Hanson, Blue Eye 141 5.2Gracie Jaeger, Branson 153 5.1Emily Shipman, Forsyth 107 4.1Tori O’Dell, Branson 116 3.9Shelby Strailey, Reeds Spring 99 3.8Tara Sampson, Reeds Spring 94 3.8Kenlee Nuss, Forsyth 92 3.7

Field-goal shootingName FGM-FGA Pct.Terra Utz-DePriest, Branson 100-171 58.5Adie Forester, Blue Eye 81-153 52.9Lacey Moore, Forsyth 181-385 47.0Katelyn Hanson, Blue Eye 60-130 46.2Lauren Garrison, Branson 128-288 44.4Gracie Jaeger, Branson 51-113 45.1Alexa Bekemeier, Hollister 85-202 42.1Amanda Kearney, Branson 211-507 41.6Kalena Asbill, Reeds Spring 111-267 41.6Kohnar Patton, Blue Eye 186-449 41.4K.K. homas, Hollister 57-140 40.7Keri Johnson, Reeds Spring 53-133 39.8Emily Shipman, Forsyth 43-108 39.8Maycee Lumley, Forsyth 133-343 38.8Kenlee Nuss, Forsyth 37-97 38.1

3-point shootingName 3FGM-3FGA Pct.Amanda Kearney, Branson 55-174 31.6Lacey Moore, Forsyth 15-50 30.0Kohnar Patton, Blue Eye 57-194 29.4Tori O’Dell, Branson 28-105 26.7Maycee Lumley, Forsyth 12-46 26.1Kenedi Larson, Blue Eye 42-163 25.8Ayshia Betlach, Blue Eye 31-132 23.5

ReboundingName Total Avg.Ashton Davidson, Forsyth 231 9.1Terra Utz-DePriest, Branson 217 8.3Raven Ross, Hollister 196 7.8C. Reeves-Eakins, Reeds Spring 181 7.0Katelyn Hanson, Blue Eye 164 6.1Lacey Moore, Forsyth 129 5.0Lauren Garrison, Branson 144 4.8K.K. homas, Hollister 118 4.7Emily Shipman, Forsyth 122 4.7Alexa Bekemeier, Hollister 116 4.6Kohnar Patton, Blue Eye 120 4.4Amanda Kearney, Branson 127 4.2Kalena Asbill, Reeds Spring 102 3.9Keri Johnson, Reeds Spring 100 3.8Adie Forester, Blue Eye 94 3.5Peyton Gillman, Forsyth 84 3.4Maycee Lumley, Forsyth 84 3.2Hannah Sullenger, Forsyth 77 3.0Gracie Jaeger, Branson 85 2.8

AssistsName Total Avg.Lacey Moore, Forsyth 135 5.0Amanda Kearney, Branson 121 4.0Ayshia Betlach, Blue Eye 104 3.9Kohnar Patton, Blue Eye 96 3.6Maycee Lumley, Forsyth 79 3.0Raven Ross, Hollister 64 2.6Ashton Davidson, Forsyth 54 2.2Gracie Jaeger, Branson 60 2.0

StealsName Total Avg.Kalena Asbill, Reeds Spring 147 5.7Lacey Moore, Forsyth 99 3.8Amanda Kearney, Branson 100 3.3Maycee Lumley, Forsyth 86 3.3Kenedi Larson, Blue Eye 85 3.1Kohnar Patton, Blue Eye 84 3.1Lauren Garrison, Branson 78 2.6

All-Tri Lakes: Utz-DePriest strong after collarbone injury

cont. from page 12A What’s more, Harding will welcome back ive of its top six scorers. “here are quite a bit of freshmen coming in, too,” said Kearney, one of four Harding signees this recruiting year. “It’s going to be good to be part of a winning team and a successful program.” Kearney hopes the competition for playing time

will bring out the best in her. “It will challenge me to get playing time,” she said. “I’m excited about it.” Kearney’s high school memories with lifelong friends will be hard to top. She led the Lady Pirates this season to a school-record 25 wins and the pro-gram’s irst District championship in nine years. he memorable post-season march for coach

Kip Bough’s bunch included a season-sweep of three games against Republic and a long-awaited upset of defending Class 5 state champion Spring-ield Kickapoo. “We were wanting to beat Kickapoo so badly the past three years,” Kearney said. “To do with my best friends was awesome. It’s something I’ll never forget.”

Kearney: Upset of Kickapoo ‘something I’ll never forget’

cont. from page 12A “I feel honored when people say that,” Patton said. “I know I have to keep working to be as good as she was. She contacts me and we talk basketball. She says I can come to her anytime I want. It’s nice to know I can go to her for her advice.” he rest of the All-Tri Lakes Team:

Terra Utz-DePriest, BransonSenior center Utz-DePriest made a glorious comeback from a right collarbone injury she sufered during the Pink & White Lady Classic in December. he injury kept her out for two games and she went on to average 9.1 points and 8.3 rebounds a game. She topped the Tri-Lakes Area with a 58.5 ield-goal percentage. “I didn’t know how serious the injury was going to be or how long I would be out,” she said. “hank-fully, I was able to come back and inish out my sea-son. (he shoulder) would get sore during the rest of the season, but it wasn’t anything I couldn’t bear.”

Kalena Asbill, Reeds SpringSophomore guard Asbill spearheaded a turnaround at Reeds Spring, with the Lady Wolves more than doubling their win total from a year ago. Asbill led the Tri-Lakes Area with 147 steals, to go along with 10.3 scoring average. While she picked of plenty of passes on the perimeter, she did most of her scoring in the paint.

“I’m short and get underestimated” the 5-foot5 Asbill said. “My speed makes up for my height. I’m working on my 3-point shot for next year and want to get stronger attacking the goal so I can inish.”

Maycee Lumley, ForsythSenior forward Lumley averaged 12.8 points a night, highlight-ed by a 28-point efort against Reeds Spring during Forsyth’s title run at the Galena Lady Bear Classic. Lumley and fellow senior Lacey Moore were teammates since they were in kindergarten and plan to maintain their friendship. “I’ll deinitely know if I need her, I can count on her to help with me anything,” Lumley said. Lumley is grateful coach Mandy Rogers arrived at Forsyth at the start of Lumley’s sophomore season. “We liked her coaching style,” Lumley said. “She was always positive, even if we did something bad. She would just say, ‘Hey, maybe next time you should do this.’ It was easy to get along with her.”

Lacey Moore, ForsythSenior guard Moore’s march to 1,000-plus points saw her total 465 points, 129 rebounds, 135 assists and 99 steals this season. Her average of 5.0 assists a game topped the Tri-Lakes Area. Moore was glad to share each moment of her career with classmate Macey Lumley. he two were All-Tri Lakes choices as juniors and seniors. “I was telling her there was no else on the team that fed of of each other like we did,” Moore said. “It

was a great experience. We accomplished a lot.” Moore has attended two college tryouts and has received an invite to play at Culver Stockton.

Lauren Garrison, BransonJunior forward Garrison’s averages of 10.5 points and 4.8 re-bounds a night don’t completely relect her con-tributions. She proved clutch in District wins over Ozark and Kickapoo. She scored six points in the fourth quarter versus the Lady Chiefs “I felt the need to be more assertive,” she said. “I felt the need to step up not only in points but as a leader and a presence on the court.” Garrison has become a strong inisher penetrat-ing to the paint while scoring 641 career points. “Driving to the basket has been one of my best abilities,” she said. “his year that became more prevalent.”

Kenedi Larson, Blue EyeSophomore guard Larson put up averages of 10.1 points and 3.1 steals a game, while evolving into a combo guard. “I handled the ball better and ran point guard some, instead of just being on the wing,” she said. Larson is one of a slew of sophomore guards for Blue Eye. She reports classmate Kenzie Hobbs, a starter as a freshman, is doing well in her rehab from knee surgery. “She’s recovering faster than (doctors) thought she would,” Larson said. “She’s even shooting during our open gyms now.”