Staff photo by Mike Buhler Kennett's Jarvis Finley (5) shoots a 3-pointer over a Hayti defender during the first half of Tuesday's Bootheel Conference contest at Kennett High School. Finley hit three of Kennett's 12 treys in an 81-77 upset of Hayti. [Click to enlarge]

With all of the struggles that the Kennett Indians have had shooting the basketball early in the season, it just seemed they were due for a breakout game.

That said, calling the Tribe's performance against Hayti a breakout game might be a big understatement.

Kennett drained 12 3-pointers and led by as much as 22 points in the third quarter before holding on for dear life to take an 81-77 win in Bootheel Conference action Tuesday night at Kennett High School.

Staff photo by Mike Buhler Hayti's William Cooper (right) shoots over Kennett's Cameron Conder during the first half of Tuesday's Bootheel Conference contest at Kennett High School. [Click to enlarge]

"It's been bad," said Kennett coach Jim Vaughan. "We were bad against Portageville just making shots -- not shooting the ball, making shots -- bad against Dexter making shots (but) we knew it was finally going to open up some night. We didn't know when -- great night to have it happen for us. That's a testament to the kids -- not losing confidence in not seeing the shots fall."

Said junior Jarvis Finley, who hit three treys of his own Tuesday: "Early in the season we were struggling with it. But we know we've got shooters on our team and if we're on that night, we're going to be on."

The win was a big one for the Tribe (2-2, 1-1 Bootheel), who put themselves right back in the conference race by knocking off arguably the league's preseason favorite, not to mention the top seed at the upcoming Bloomfield Christmas Tournament.

"Any win for us is a big confidence-builder right now, but this one -- it just kind of shows our kids where we can be," Vaughan said. "That's a quality basketball team -- they're probably going to win a district or vie for a district and have got a chance to make a (postseason) run. ... We just proved to ourselves where we can get to."

Kennett did it by hitting the 3-pointer, draining four treys in the first quarter and dropping five in the third as part of a 25-5 run.

Leading the charge from downtown was junior Tevin Hampton, who hit five 3s on his way to scoring a team-high 17 points.

"His shot has got quicker," said Vaughan. "His release is just nice and you could tell when his first one went down tonight that he was in for a good night. I was so happy to see it for him because he has beaten himself up over not shooting the ball well."

The Indians led 67-45 after Trey Abmeyer's basket with 1:19 left in the third period, but Hayti scored the last six points of the period to narrow the gap to 16 points (67-51) entering the final period.

Kennett still led 73-59 after a Greg Bowles' field goal with 4:47 left in the game, but Hayti scored 13 straight points to make a one-point game on Jerome Covington's free throw with 2:08 left.

Hayti cut the Tribe's lead to one point again on William Cooper's basket with 44 seconds left to make it a 77-76 game, but came no closer as Kennett hit free throws when it counted most.

"That right there is a sign (that) we have grown because a year ago we might have folded ..." Vaughan said of his team's resiliency late. "We finally got it to a two-possession game there late, finally made a couple of free throws late to where (with) tough-mindedness, we did hang on."

Joining Hampton in double figures for Kennett were Finley with 15 points, while Ashton Harrell and Jimmy Gooden each added 11.

Jamestic Gooden scored a game-high 24 points -- 16 after halftime -- to pace Hayti, while Cooper added 21 points and nine rebounds and Denzel Presberry added 10 points.

The Indians are back in action Friday when it hosts Jackson in their SEMO Conference opener. Jackson routed Dexter 78-48 Tuesday night.

In the meantime, Kennett can maybe savor Tuesday's win for a moment or so.

"I think we played good tonight," Finley said. "Everybody came out ready to play. We had a good practice. Everybody was talking about the game up until today. I feel like we did our job -- we got the win."

Notes: Kennett won the junior varsity game 50-36 behind 17 points from Jamal Gooden and 12 from Cameron Wallace. Keenan Williams scored 13 points to pace Hayti. ... Kennett is seeded 10th out of 16 teams at the Bloomfield Christmas Tournament, while Bootheel Conference rivals Malden and South Pemiscot are seeded seventh and 12th, respectively. Kennett plays at Malden next Tuesday, then will see the Green Wave again in the first round of the BCT on December 26. ... Hayti had 23 turnovers Tuesday.