The Warriors are 3-0 heading into Thursday night's game at Danville.
Wabash Valley never trailed. Brandon Dunson hit a fast break bucket, then added a second shot on an Alley Oop play. Desmond Holloway scored on a mid-range shot, and the Warriors were up 6-0 less than two minutes into the game.
The closest Kennedy-King came was at 6-2, on Jeremy Lee's five-footer on an in-bounds play, and 8-4 as Darrell Blanton scored on a putback.
Wabash Valley built leads of as many as 19 points, 35-26. Holloway hit a three-pointer from the right wing, then was fouled on another three-point attempt and dropped in all three free throws. That lead came with 6:47 left in the first half.
Kennedy-King got to within seven, at 35-28, as Lee culminated a 12-0 run with an inside bucket. But the Warriors pulled away down the stretch and led at the break, 50-32. The lead came on Omar Sanders' inside bucket with one-half of a second to play.
In the second half it was all Warriors. Sanders put the Warriors in front by 22 with a three-pointer at the 17:19 mark. With 14:24 to play, Chris Britt scored on a putback, and the lead was 31 points, 68-37.
Only once did the Wabash Valley advantage fall below 30 points. That came with 13:11 to play as Brandon Grissette scored on a fast break for the Statesmen.
Kresimir Mustapic gave Wabash Valley a 41-point margin when he hit two free throws with 1:22 remaining. Quinton Horton added two buckets for the final margin.
"I thought the first half we played pretty solid," said Warriors Coach Dan Sparks. "We had, I think, 10 or 11 turnovers at halftime, which is more than we'd like to have. But I thought the first half we played really good defense."
"I thought Desmond Holloway had a really good first half. The second half I though Jason Landry really gave us a big lift," Sparks added.
The coach also said Sanders and Brandon McGee had good games for the Warriors.
McGee, the coach said, "wasn't in sync with what we were trying to do defensively and gave up some easy points" in the first half. But in the second half he played better.
"I talked to the coach at Southwestern Tennessee and he told me they like to crash the boards. That's one thing we worked on in practice last night - we've worked on that all year - but we tried to emphasize that one of the game points tonight was not to let them get a lot of offensive rebounds. They ended up with 12 but they didn't get a lot of scores off of them," Coach Sparks added.
He also said the Warriors defense took Kennedy-King out of what it likes to do - dribble penetrate. "I though we were pretty good in taking away their dribble penetration," he said.
Holloway led four Warriors in double figures with 27. Dunson added 17, Sanders 16 and McGee 12.
Wabash Valley hit 40 of 68 shots overall, 58.8 percent, and was nine of 16 from three-point range, 56.3 percent. Wabash Valley was 16 of 23 at the line, 69.6 percent.
Byron Board led Kennedy-King with 14 while Darrell Blanton added 13.
The Statesmen hit 22 of 61 shots overall, 36.1 percent, and went three of 17 from three-point range for 17.6 percent. They were 14 of 21 at the line, 66.7 percent.
WVC held a 41-31 rebounding margin with Sanders grabbing seven, Dunson, Cornelius Chatt and Landry five each, and Holloway, McGee and Mustapic four each. Lee had six for Kennedy-King with Blanton grabbing five.
BOX SCORE
Kennedy-King: Love, 2-0-0--4; R. Smith, 2-1-0--7; McBride, 2-0-0--4; Lee, 3-0-0--6; E. Smith, 0-0-0--0; Croon, 1-0-0--2; Stevens, 0-0-0--0; Winfield, 0-0-0--0; Mayo, 2-0-2--6; Blanton, 4-0-5--13l Board, 2-1-7--14; Brissette, 2-0-0--4; Totals, 20-2-14--60
Wabash Valley: Dunson, 5-2-1--17; Chatt, 3-0-0--6; Holloway, 7-2-7--27; Sanders, 5-2-0--16; Lockett, 1-0-1--3; Landry, 3-0-1--7; Wickware, 0-0-2--2; Oxley, 1-0-0--2; Horton, 2-0-0--4; George, 0-0-0--0; P. Smith, 0-0-0--0; McGee, 1-3-1--12; Mustapic, 2-0-3--7; Britt, 1-0-0--2; Totals, 31-9-16--105
Fouled out: Kennedy-King - R. Smith
