Rossview High teams sweep Kenwood on the court, despite boys’ battle | PHOTOS

by Knox Rives

CLARKSVILLE, TN (CLARKSVILLE NOW) – The Rossview Hawks girls played host to the Knights from Kenwood on Friday, and despite early struggles, the Hawks beat the Knights soundly, 65-27.

The defense of Kenwood locked down the Hawks’ normally high flying offense early, leading to them being down only 6 at the end of the first. Kenwood head coach Jemiah Harrison saw positives from her young squad early.

“Right now our defense keeps us in games” said Harrison. “Being a young team, we’re working on our offense, but we always play hard on defense. We just have to learn how to play like that all four quarters.”

The Hawks coming out of the break went on a 17-0 run to start the 2nd, and finished the quarter outsourcing their opponent 24-2. Head Coach Clay Head said the scoring output was mostly because of their defense.

“I think we turned up our pressure defensively,” Head said. “It got us in the flow. We’ve been a slow starting team, but when we get going and start getting baskets good stuff happens.”

The Hawks would cruise in the second half leading to a 65-27 victory over the Knights. Their scoring effort was led by guard Jai Jordan and forward (WKU signee) Torri James’ 11 points. Head said this game was extremely useful to get some of his more inexperienced girls out on the floor.

“We’ve been telling them to stay ready, you never know. We’ve been playing six, seven girls, and we need more depth to play the style we want to play.”

It’s worth note that Kenwood’s coach Harrison is a Rossview alum and played basketball there from 2012-15. For her, coming back to her alma mater is a blueprint for her girls to follow.

“I love coming back here, it’s always a great environment. It’s amazing to see the final four ball when we went to the state tournament. I always tell my girls, this could be you, that’s the mindset they should have. They can make their own legacy just like I did here.”

Box Scores

Rossview:

Jai Jordan 11
Torri James 11
Baylee Williams 10
Neveah Brown 7
Madisyn Tomason 6
Ellie Hankemeir 5
Sid Carstens 3
Ailani Davis 2
Ray Aisnbokhae 2
Imani Evans 1

Kenwood:

Yazmine Pearson 8
Sarai Thompson 6
Synya Seay 3
Nyla Murphy 3
Razya Jones 3
DeDe Terell 2
Alesha WIlliams 2

Rossview boys beat Kenwood 54-49

The Knights from Kenwood visited the Rossview Hawks for a Friday night matchup. A defensive slugfest in the first half and a shootout in the second led to a dramatic finish, and the Hawks pulled it out by a final score of 54-49.

The Hawks did not have much problems with in-city opponents last year, but the Knights had a goal to change that, holding the Hawks to only 16 points in the first half playing fantastic defense and grabbing every rebound they could.

“We do what we always do, come out, play hard, and compete,” said Kenwood head coach Chase Cronin. “A lot of their makes came on tougher shots and rebounds so we have to clean that up, but they competed and guarded well for four quarters.”

However, the Hawks came out of the halftime break guns blazing, doubling their first half total before the 3rd quarter expired. Coach Johnny Jackson was frustrated with the first half, but proud of how they battled back.

“We just came out flat, bottom line. Anyone can score 16 points in a half. We talked about pounding it inside at the half cause we were settling for 3’s. We turned it up defensively, got out on the break and figured it out.”

The Hawks pulled away for the victory, but it was a scare for a Rossview team who hasn’t lost an in city game since the 2021-2022 season. For the Knights, turnovers in the 2nd half were their Achilles heel, as the Hawks got out on the break and made them pay, including a Jacob Edwards slam which might be one of the best high school in-game dunks this season.

“When you turn the ball over 17 times it’s hard for your defense to guard” said Coach Cronin. “When the game was at our pace and we slowed it down we looked good. However, there’s gotta be a lesson learned, and it;s that we can’t have 17 turnovers against this team.”

Box Score

Rossview: