KENNETT, Mo. -- It took a little extra time but the Kennett girls basketball team found a way to rally past the visiting Twin Rivers in the closing minutes Thursday night.
Kennett overcame a six-point deficit in the closing six minutes of the fourth quarter to force overtime and scored the final five points of the extra session as the Indians outlasted Twin Rivers 46-43.
"We received a total team contribution tonight," Kennett coach Kevin McCaig said. "We had some freshmen make some key shots late in the game. We showed great resiliency after a tough game yesterday against a very good team. Tonight is a big win for us against a team that took third place in the Christmas Tournament."
Twin Rivers led by a basket on three occasions during overtime, the final time with 44 seconds left.
Following an Indians' timeout, freshman guard Kaniya Madlock knocked down a wide-open 3-pointer on the right wing to put Kennett on top 44-43 with 15 seconds remaining.
"She's a freshman with a scoring mentality," McCaig said of Madlock. "You don't want to harness what she does well. She's always been able to put the ball in the hole the last two years for me. She just keeps shooting and one fell for her at a big time tonight."
Twin Rivers pushed the ball to half court and burned its final timeout with 9 seconds remaining.
The Royals were unable to get a shot off after the timeout. Kennett managed to deflect the inbound pass and forward Caroline Patton eventually recovered the loose ball. Twin Rivers fouled Patton with 4 seconds remaining and the freshman knocked down a pair of free throws to set the final score.
"That was a big play," McCaig said of the defensive stop. "We packed it in and got everyone in the passing lanes. Caroline was able to pick up a loose ball and had the whereabouts to know she was going to get fouled. Then she stepped up and made some free throws for us in a big spot."
Kennett maintained possession of the ball after the free throws because the foul was ruled intentional. The Indians inbounded the ball at half court and managed to burn off the remaining seconds.
Neither team led by more than six points in the slow-paced affair. Twin Rivers led 9-8 after one quarter, 21-20 at halftime and 34-28 at the end of the third period.
Kennett trailed 36-30 with 5:37 left in the fourth quarter. The only point the Royals added down the stretch was a free throw by Catey Hester that padded Twin Rivers' lead to 37-35 with 52 seconds left.
Kennett senior guard Dakayla Duckworth made a pair of free throws with 46 seconds left in the fourth quarter to tie things up at 37-all. The Indians put together a defensive stand on Royals' next offensive possession to force overtime.
Twin Rivers coach Kelly Westerfield identified her team's lack of rebounding as a contributing factor to the road defeat.
"I wasn't impressed with our rebounding," Westerfield said. "We didn't give ourselves any second chances to score and let them get too many second chance shots, which got our post players in foul trouble. We tried to throw a different defense at them in the final minute of overtime to try to rattle whatever they drew up, but they stepped up and hit a big 3-pointer. Our last-second stuff didn't look good at all, but if we rebound the ball better we are not in that position anyway."
All six Kennett players that scored recorded at least five points.
The only Indians' player who finished in double digits was Kayton Harris. The senior post player recorded 10 points before fouling out in the final minute of the fourth quarter.
Senior guard Katelyn South paced Twin Rivers with 14 points. The next highest scorer for the Royals was Katey Hester who finished with seven points.
"We definitely would have liked to play faster," Westerfield said. "They slowed things down. I told the girls in the locker room, 'If they can slow it down and handle the pressure we apply we have to perform better in half-court situations.' We couldn't do that because we didn't rebound well enough tonight."
The Royals were forced to play the closing minutes without two of its post players. Junior Katie Deken fouled out with 1:33 left in the fourth quarter and senior Katie Baxter fouled out with 2:13 left in overtime.
Kennett (5-10) finished 15 of 22 from the free-throw line while Twin Rivers made 9 of 15 foul shots.
Twin Rivers (9-6) returns to action Monday when it hosts East Carter.