By Michael Cignoli (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
BOLIVAR – As Kickapoo watched a double-digit lead dwindle during the fourth quarter of Saturday evening’s Class 6 quarterfinal, there was never any panic on the bench.
Sure, their opponents were surging. And yes, a trip to the Final Four was on the line.
But it wasn’t anything that an experienced Kickapoo team couldn’t handle.
“We’ve been here before,” senior forward Bella Fontleroy said. “We know how to play in championship types of games and this is what that atmosphere was. It came down to us executing and making free throws. We just kept our heads and finished the game like we knew we needed to.”
Thanks to that, the Chiefs guaranteed themselves two more games in similar atmospheres.
Fontleroy led all scorers with 26 points as Kickapoo secured its fourth trip to a Final Four since 2016 with a 64-51 victory over Truman, of Independence, at the Meyer Wellness Center.
Ranked third in the state, Kickapoo (27-3) will face sixth-ranked Blue Springs South (25-4) at 2 p.m. Thursday at JQH Arena for the right to play for the seventh state title in school history.
The Chiefs have now reached the Final Four 15 times, most recently winning the championship in 2016. Kickapoo finished as the state runner-up in 2018 and placed third one season ago.
“It’s amazing,” Fontleroy said. “Our group last year was so great and our group this year is just as good – if not better – just because of our chemistry on and off the court. Off the court, we’re all best friends and it really carries over. It means so much to be able to go back with this group.”
Truman (18-11) nearly prevented that from happening.
The Chiefs led 48-36 early in the fourth quarter, but the District 6 champions stormed back with a 10-1 run to cut the deficit to three with just under four minutes remaining.
Kickapoo coach Jim Pendergrass delivered a simple message to his players.
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“This is all you’ve got in your season,” he recalled saying. “This is all you’ve got. You have to get stops, because that’s what you’re playing for. Defensive stops and rebounds were going to win that basketball game – and we ended up getting enough of them.”
Once the Chiefs got a stop, momentum began building in their favor.
They closed the game on a 15-5 run, with all but four of those points coming from the foul line.
Fontleroy, who was named the state’s Gatorade Player of the Year earlier in the week, was 7-of-8 from the stripe during that stretch and finished with 19 points in the second half.
The Baylor commit was also a force on the boards at both ends of the court.
“She averages 11 rebounds,” Pendergrass said. “I don’t know what she had tonight, but it was a lot – and we needed them all. She’s our best rebounder and she’s the best rebounder in most of our games on either team.”
While most of Kickapoo’s offense runs through Fontleroy, the Chiefs have a cast of role players who contribute on offense and seem to take turns coming through in big games.
On Saturday it was junior guard Miya Nieto, who hit two huge 3-pointers and led the team in scoring in the first half. She finished with 12, all but two of them coming in the first two quarters.
“She was hitting from the beginning of the game and then everybody kind of caught momentum,” Fontleroy said. “We started hitting our little floater shots in the middle. Everybody kept the energy up and alive. There were a few times when they went on some big runs, but we kept our head and just finished the game strong like we needed to to get to the Final Four.”
Secondary scoring becomes exponentially more important at this stage of the season.
“We’re a team that has one player that averages double-figures and every night we need the rest of them to do a little bit more,” Pendergrass said. “Maybe a different person every night. We don’t necessarily know going in. In the district tournament, we played a lot of different kids depending on the situation. That gives us flexibility. Give them credit. They’re ready to go whenever their number is called.”
Defensively, the Chiefs focused on containing Truman sisters Taliyah Scott and Layla Scott. The pair combined to score 30 of the team’s 51 points, slightly above their average of 25 per game.
“One of our big emphasis was just keeping them from scoring, which they both did really, really well,” Fontleroy said. “I feel like in the second half, we really picked up on guarding them and contesting all their shots. Their shots stopped falling. We just did what we needed to do.”
And now the focus shifts to doing what the team wants to do — win another state title.
For Fontleroy, who missed her entire sophomore season with a knee injury, the opportunity to play two more big games before graduating from Kickapoo is both special and bittersweet.
“I’m going to get emotional, because I’ve kind of been dreading this,” Fontleroy said. “Postseason is the best, but the past four years have been really crazy. Only getting to play three of them, it feels like I should still have more time. I’m just going to make the best of the time that we have left with this group and just finish strong.”
