Despite Loss Kendrick Boys Advance to State Tournament

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The Kendrick boys basketball team fell behind by 19 points early and couldn’t recover in an 81-64 loss to Manchester in the Region 5-AA boys consolation final on Saturday at Spencer High.

The loss dropped the Cherokees (9-18) to the 4-seed in the state tournament, while the Blue Devils (22-5) earned the 3-seed. Region 5 will be matched up against Region 8 in the Class AA playoffs.

Led by a dominant interior game, the Blue Devils scored the game’s first eight points. When Kendrick scored its first three of the game, Manchester followed with a 14-0 run to make it 22-3 just three and a half minutes into the game. After one quarter, Manchester was ahead 28-10.

Kendrick cut the lead to as few as 12 points in the second quarter, but immediately fell out of the game in the third when Manchester went on a 12-2 run to go ahead by 24, 57-33.

Christian Bradford led the Cherokees with 31 points in the loss, followed by 13 apiece from Kentrell Parker and Brian Hampton. Kevis Martin scored 19 for Manchester and Denzel Clements had 18.

With the loss the Cherokees will hit the road to play Jefferson on Wednesday, if the name causes some deja vu, it may be because that is the same team that knocked the football team out of the state playoffs earlier this school year.

Coach Jones said, "our region is very competitive and I look for all the teams coming out of 5-AA to do well, we just have to take care of business"!