ORVILLE – It took all of three minutes in to the 1st quarter for the Keith Bears to get loose as they went on a tear the rest of the game to beat the Billingsley Bears 87-31 Friday night.

“We wanted to come out and play with intensity the entire four quarters,” said an elated Coach Joseph Pettway. “In our last game we only played well for one quarter and got beat bad. So we wanted to play aggressively tonight. Our bench came in and played well tonight, also.”

The Keith Bears played the kind of running game they like to play. The defense was the key that allowed Keith to keep the tempo up the entire game.

Another important factor was that Keith committed just eight turnovers in the game.

“Some of those turnovers were unforced errors, but our guards made good decisions tonight,” Pettway said.

After cruising to a 25-8 first-quarter lead, the Keith offense didn’t slow down. The homestanding Bears went into the locker room with a 46-11 halftime lead.

Charles Jones had 15 points at halftime for Keith.

The third quarter was a continuation of the first half. Keith continued to run and play with high intensity while its defense didn’t let up.

Pettway emptied his bench with 3:33 remaining in the third period.

The scoring and defense, however, didn’t stop as Keith outscored Billingley in the second half 41-20.

Jones finished the game with 17 points for Keith, 7-8 (3-2 in the area). Lewis Lee and Marcus Thomas added 15 and 10 points,

respectively

Keith will host the Martin Luther King Memorial Tournament on Monday beginning at noon. The tournament will feature Sumter County, the top-ranked team in Class 3A, along with Class 1A fourth-ranked Autaugaville, Class 6A Prattville, along with Dallas County, A. L. Johnson, and Marengo County.