CLARKSVILLE, TN (CLARKSVILLE NOW) – The Kenwood Lady Knights traveled to Northwest High School for a district 14-4A matchup with the Vikings on Monday night. A close game through the first half, the Vikings scored 30 third-quarter points to pull away for a 65-31 win, led by a 25-point performance from Leighani Santiago.

The Vikings led by eight points through one quarter, but an 8-0 run by the Knights to start the second quickly evened things up early in the contest.

Kenwood guard Ambrielle Davis led all scorers with seven points through the first half of the game, but the Knights trailed 24-16 at the break. Coming out of halftime though, the Vikings caught fire, with Santiago making her first three attempts from three, and scoring 13 of the team’s 30 third-quarter points.

“Kenwood plays hard, they came out at us early and we kind of panicked,” said Vikings head coach Ben Wallace. “At halftime, we just talked about slowing down the game and executing, and we did that well coming out of it. I told Leighani I don’t care how much you’re missing, shoot the ball, and she did, just started making them.”

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The Knights continued to fight in the fourth quarter, but the damage had already been done, and Kenwood lost the contest. Kenwood now will look to bounce back quick. Due to reschedules, they have five district games in five days this week, and this was just the first one.

“We fought, at the end of the day, we’re a young team, and we’re always going to fight,” said Knights head coach Jemiah Harrison. “We’re injured, and we’re losing bodies, and that’s hard to deal with when we’re playing so many games. We just have to have people step up, fill bigger roles, and be ready to play with the postseason coming up.”

As for Northwest, they keep a strong hold on third place in the district with the win and look to move up with key district matchups upcoming.

“We feel like we can play with anyone in our district,” Wallace said. “Who knows, we could climb the standings. Everyone is facing the gauntlet this week and next, and we just have to be able to respond, wins or losses.”

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