Braves whip the Whippets Tuesday

SIKESTON -- With a vacant spot left in the Scott County Central Braves' schedule due to a 'mix up', the Ellington Whippets jumped at the chance to play one of the premiere teams in Southeast Missouri.

"It was a good game for us to pick up at this time of the year," Ellington head coach Chris Miller said. "We've got some tough competition coming up in our area and I just told our guys that we won't play a better team than the team we played tonight probably for the rest of the year."

The Braves did not disappoint the visiting Whippets as they proved their merit in a 93-40 rout on Tuesday night.

"They got a good ball club," Scott Central head coach Ronnie Cookson said. "I just really appreciate that they drove all the way over here to play us. He (Miller) was wanting to play a decent team. That's good coaching when you do something like that."

Scott Central was firing on all cylinders as they opened up with a 21-point lead after the first quarter. The Braves haunting pressure defense caused 26 turnovers in the first half alone which were mostly from steals.

Out of the 26 turnovers in the first half, 21 were steals.

Drew Thomas, Randy Timmons and Otto Porter each had four steals a piece while Dez Williams and Bobby Hatchett came up with three each in the first half.

"We had about three or four days to practice," Miller said. "There's really no possible way for us to completely simulate in practice what they can do. I give all credit to coach Cookson and his kids. He's the legend."

The Braves held a 60-16 lead at half time and went on to outscore the Whippets 33-24 in the second half. Scott Central caused a total of 35 turnovers throughout the game. Scott Central also held the rebounding advantage against the Whippets, 25-16.

Thomas led all scorers with 35 points and had five steals and four rebounds. Porter gave the Braves 16 points, eight rebounds, five steals and four steals while Hatchett added 12 points and five assists and Williams chipped in 11 points. Timmons finished with six points, seven steals and four rebounds.

Brad Baysinger led Ellington with 17 points while Drew Morrison added 13 points.

Originally, the Poplar Bluff Mules were scheduled to play the Braves on Dec. 3, but a simple 'mix up' forced Scott Central to find a replacement in Ellington (2-3).

"We got mixed up," Cookson said. "We had them on our schedule and they didn't have us on their schedule. It was just a mix up."

Scott Central (5-1) will travel to Gideon on Friday to take on the Bulldogs with the junior varsity game starting at 6 p.m.

Junior Varsity

The Scott County Central junior varsity took care of the Ellington junior varsity 62-22.

The Braves held a 29-8 lead at the half.

Dominique Porter led the Braves with 22 points while Reggie Woodson added 12.