Top seeds move on

Scott Central's Drew Thomas goes up for a layup against Kelly in the quarterfinals of the Southeast Missourian Christmas Tournament on Saturday. Josh Mills, Staff

CAPE GIRARDEAU -- Since coming in to the Southeast Missourian Christmas Tournament as the No. 1 seed, the Scott County Central Braves have pretty much done what they have done all season; score fast and score often.

"It's just amazing," Kelly head coach Nate Wills said. "It's almost like they take the ball at one free throw line and they're going to get a shot at the other one. It's almost like the court is shrunk for them because they're so fast and so long that they are just going to get it and go. They don't have to do anything other than that."

The Braves did just that against the Kelly Hawks on Saturday as they went on to defeat them for the second time this season in a 81-37 rout.

Charleston's Akeem Sharp guards Cape Central's Terrance Howard Saturday night at the Show Me Center. Looking on is Cape Central's Rick Russell (42) and Charleston's Chase McClendon. Josh Mills, Staff [Click to enlarge]

The cause for the rapid pace of the Braves is and has always been their defense. They forced 27 turnovers, including 18 steals, which led to many easy buckets on the other end.

"They don't need an offense," Wills said. "Three passes and they got a bucket. They can score points in bunches.

Scott Central senior Drew Thomas, who finished with a game-high 34 points, seemed to be everywhere on the court. He forced six steals and reached 20 points in the first half alone.

"That's the main part of our game. We just push the ball up the court and I guess I'll be the one down there getting it," Thomas said jokingly.

Kelly fell victim to the early scoring as they saw the Braves go on a 7-0 run in the first minute of the game. Scott Central held a 22-9 advantage at the end of the first quarter and a 50-16 lead at the half.

"One bucket for them counts for ten. That's how fast they score," Wills said. "If your up 10 in the fourth quarter with two minutes left that is not a safe lead. If your up 20 with a minute left in the fourth quarter that is not a safe lead. That is how fast they score."

Wills went on to say that the Braves have too many options to defend. If one player seems to be having a bad night, they can lean on someone else to pick up the slack.

"They have so many weapons," he said. "If you can catch Bobby (Hatchett) on a bad night, well they're going to come back with Drew (Thomas). If you catch Bobby and Drew on a bad night well then you got Otto (Porter). It's one guy after another. They've got a lot of options."

Porter finished with 16 points and 10 rebounds, while Hatchett scored 10 and dished out eight assists. Randy Timmons ended up with 11 points.

Three players finished with eight points for the Hawks. Zach Essner, Levi Felter and Eric Turley led Kelly in that department.

Even with two impressive victories in their first two games in the tournament, Thomas believes that they are still not playing to their full capacity. That they are not playing 'Scott Central brand' basketball.

"For some reason we are still not playing like we should be," said Thomas. "We're not playing like the Scott County Central Braves. We're just out there now. Kelly has got a good team and I have all respect for them but we just didn't play well."

Coming in as the No. 1 seed in the tournament it would seem to put a little bit of pressure on a team. Especially a 'small school' team looking at playing a Class 3 team in Charleston in the semi-final round and having to face either Class 4 Notre Dame or Class 5 Jackson in the next round depending on the outcome of the next round.

"I think we have a little thing on our chest to compete," Thomas said. "Since we've got the number one seed I guess we supposed to win the championship. It puts a lot on our shoulders."

"There's a little bit of pressure," Porter said. "We just come out and play our hardest"

"It's going to take a monumental effort from somebody to give them a run," Wills said about the Braves chances of winning the tournament. "There's a couple of teams in here that can give them a couple problems."

Scott Central's next game is against the Charleston Bluejays tonight at 6 p.m.

Charleston 51, Cape Central 42

With the Charleston Bluejays holding a 43-34 lead at the end of the third quarter against the Cape Central Tigers on Saturday, the Bluejays proceeded to do something that has been a highly unlikely thing for many past Bluejay teams to do.

They stalled.

Whether it was uncharacteristic or not, the move paid off for the Bluejays as they went on to avenge an earlier season loss against the Tigers in a 51-42 final.

Tigers coach Drew Church did not expect the stall move from the usual 'run-and-gun' Bluejays.

"The honest answer is no," Church said. "It was a pretty smart move because they were in foul trouble a little bit and we were in the bonus so they kind of wanted to stop the flow of the game. Kudos to them."

Charleston wasted a little over a total of five minutes off the clock with the tactic which is something that the Bluejays head coach Danny Farmer said that they had been working on recently.

"We came out just to try to win the game," Farmer said. "We were smart at the end. If we were that smart in some of our earlier games we probably would have won a few of them.

"We've been working on that -- trying to be smart and win some close games."

The closest that the Tigers came to the Bluejays was with 56 seconds left in regulation and one made free throw from Terrance Howard to make it a 46-40 game. Charleston went on to outscore the Tigers 8-7 in the fourth.

One of the reasons for the stall was because of the foul trouble that the Bluejays were in. Especially from one of their go-to guys in Donald Dixon.

"He's been doing that for us," said Farmer about Dixon. "He's been our only offense for us in a few games. We're trying to get everybody involved but, I guess it will come."

Dixon committed his third and fourth foul midway through the third quarter. Charleston held a slim 37-29 lead at the time. Shortly after it decreased to a 37-32 lead.

He returned to the game with a little over three minutes left in the fourth quarter and hit three crucial free throws down the stretch to increase the lead. Deonte Jones also had a crucial offensive rebound and a put back that he was fouled on too to make it a nine point game with 35 seconds left in the game.

Dixon led all scorers with 23 points and five rebounds. Jones added seven.

The No. 4 seeded Charleston will now be rewarded by playing the No. 1 seeded Scott Central Braves in the semi-final round at 6 p.m. which Farmer said will be a good game to see where they are at right now.

"That's going to be an adventure," Farmer said. "They're the number one team and a very good team. That's a measuring tool for us. That's why we play tough people. We want to be able to play with the Scott Central's"

The Cape Central Tigers (4-5) will take on the Kelly Hawks on Monday at 3 p.m.

Scott City 51, Oak Ridge 48

The Scott City Rams became the first lower seed to win a game at the Southeast Missourian Christmas Tournament on Saturday at the Show-Me Center.

The No. 13 seed Rams defeated No. 12 Oak Ridge 51-48 in a consolation bracket game.

Scott City tied the game 22-22 just before halftime and last trailed with less than two minutes gone in the third quarter, but the Rams never led by more than seven points in the second half.

"We completed some plays today there at the end, and that's been our Achilles' heel all year," Scott City coach Lance Amick said. "We're starting to grow up as a team a little bit. The experience of the year is starting to show a little bit."

The Rams returned just one starter this season, something senior Cody Page said slowed the team's progress.

"It's a building process right now," Page said. "We're all not used to playing with each other, so it's just a building block. We've got to learn how to finish games, and we're finally starting to realize how to do that."

Oak Ridge pulled within one score several times in the fourth quarter, but despite impressive offensive performances from Garret Light and Brett Thomas, could never tie or overtake the Rams.

Light finished with 18 points, while Thomas scored 17. The duo combined to score all but four of Oak Ridge's points in the Blue Jays' opening round loss to Cape Central.

Page led Scott City offensively with 15 points. Jake Campbell added 11 points, including three 3-pointers. Shae Simmons also finished in double digits for the Rams with 10, including a jumper in the lane with a minute to play that gave Scott City a 51-46 lead.

Scott City scored 18 points in the final quarter after scoring a total of 16 in the last three quarters of Friday's loss to Charleston.

The Rams won despite making just three of 15 free throws.

"The effort was there all day, and it has been all year," Amick said. "The intelligence level just picked up a little bit today. We had more people in the right spots today.

"Today we just more consistently did the things that we needed to do."

Bell City 79, Woodland 59

Bell City claimed a big first quarter lead in its consolation bracket game against Woodland Saturday in the Southeast Missourian Christmas Tournament, but the Cubs still had to fight it out in the fourth quarter.

Bell City was outscored over the next two quarters before finally pulling away in the fourth quarter for a 79-59 win.

"You can't just put a team away like that," Bell City coach Brian Brandtner said. "They wanted to fight and fight with us, and you've got to give them all the credit in the world."

Bell City's Melvin Johnson said he thought the key to the fourth-quarter performance was the Cubs' full-court pressure defense.

"We just had to get the ball up and down the floor and try to get them tired," he said.

Brandtner said he made "more threats than changes," throughout the game.

"I thought our defensive pressure was better today," he said. "I thought we worked the ball inside a little bit better and that opened up our inside-outside game."

Johnson seemed to benefit from this most. The senior made seven 3-pointers in the game and finished with 23 points. Junior Jeff Long led the Cubs with 25 points.

Johnson hit three 3s in a short span in the fourth quarter to help the Cubs pull away. They outscored Woodland by 15 in the final period.

"The goal just kept getting bigger. After we just kept going up and down, the goal just got bigger," Johnson said.

Kyle Reynolds scored 17 points for Woodland, and Josh Hahn had 12.

Oran 59, Chaffee 29

So much for a letdown.

A day after nearly knocking off No. 6 Leopold in the opening round of the Southeast Missourian Christmas Tournament, the No. 11 seed Oran Eagles dominated Chaffee 59-29.

"They responded well," Oran coach Joe Shoemaker said about Friday's 3-point loss. "We talked about not coming out flat, and I think they did good coming out and playing well."

Jon Morrow led the Eagles in scoring with 20 points. The 6-foot-4 sophomore is playing in the Christmas tournament for the first time, something he seemed more excited about than intimidated by.

"We had all five players playing at one time instead of four and then just one being lazy," said Morrow, who admitted he was just passing along what Shoemaker tells the team in practice. "We all worked together."

When Shoemaker spoke for himself, he said he saw an improvement in his team's play on Saturday.

"We played more consistent today. We played well in spurts yesterday and we were more consistent with it today."

Kurt Rendleman added 11 points for Oran, and Nathan Michelsen had 8.

The Red Devils, who were eliminated from the tournament, were led Taimen Taylor with 10 points.

Oran will face Bell City at 1:30 p.m. on Monday in a consolation bracket semifinal match up.

Meadow Heights 54, Delta 51

Meadow Heights' mayhem was Delta's heartbreak.

The Panthers rallied from 17 points down in the final 7 minutes to upend winless Delta 54-51 in a consolation quarterfinal game at the Southeast Missourian Christmas Tournament at the Show Me Center.

Derrick Wilfong, who led the Panthers with 20 points, scored a basket with 19 seconds to go to give Meadow Heights its first lead since the early going. He made a steal on Delta's final possession and converted that layin at the buzzer for the final margin.

"That felt great," Wilfong said of the final play. "I knew we had it in us, we just had to work hard and do our press like we had been."

Meadow Heights trailed by 17 at halftime and 16 entering the final period.

"I was really concerned at halftime," Panthers coach Tom Brown said. "We came out slow and draggy. Our shooting wasn't there and our defense really wasn't there."

Brown attributed the rust to a nearly two-week layoff in part because of weather conditions recently.

Delta, on the other hand, was steady in the second period. After an ugly first period ended in a 7-7 tie, the Bobcats pulled away from a 13-13 second-period deadlock with a 19-2 run to close the quarter.

The Bobcats, the 16th seed and a 66-point loser Friday, were a little shaky in the third but maintained the lead in bidding for their first win of the season in their seventh game.

"The first three quarters, we took it to them," Delta coach Justin Simpher said, "and the last quarter we played like we were OK with where we were. We got stale and it was hard to get it going again."

The Bobcats hit just 5 of 11 free throws in the final period and missed two front ends of one-and-ones. They missed a pair with 47 seconds left, not ling before Wilfong put in the go-ahead basket.

Wilfong also had consecutive baskets earlier in the period to pull Meadow Heights within two.

"Our shooting hasn't been hitting the last few nights," Wilfong said. "We just had to force turnovers and get on fast breaks."

The Panthers pressure finally wore down Delta, which carries only six players.

"I think that's why they made a lot of fouls at the end," Brown said. "They were tired, but they're solid.

"For six kids, you don't find any that work harder. Their coach does a great job with them, and I'm just proud to come out with a win."

Said Simpher: "That's all I've asked them: The wins and losses will take of themselves; you just go out and play hard each and every day and I'll be happy."

Cody Naramore scored 15 to lead Delta, while Zach Reigert added 12.

Notre Dame 76, Advance 41

The seventh-seeded Advance Hornets were able to keep pace with Notre Dame for one quarter of their quarterfinal matchup at the Southeast Missourian Christmas Tournament.

Then everything changed.

The second-seeded Bulldogs outscored Advance by 17 in the second quarter en route to a 76-41 victory.

Austin Greer led the Bulldogs with 25 points. Sophomore Jacob Tolbert scored 12 points and Alex Bader finished with eight.

Darren VanGennip had eight points to lead Advance, which trailed by just one point after the first quarter.

Jackson 64, Leopold 53

The third-seeded Jackson Indians wore down Leopold over the second and third quarters to post a 64-53 victory over the previously unbeaten Wildcats in the Southeast Missourian Christmas Tournament quarterfinals.

The Wildcats, seeded sixth, had opened the season 6-0 but after winning the Woodland Invitational had yet to face a school as large as Class 5 Jackson.

Marcus Harris scored 21 points, Zach McDowell added 15 and Kyle Keith had 13 for the Indians, who now will get their first shot at longtime rival Notre Dame. The two schools met in the championship game last year but will play in the prime time 7:30 semifinal on Monday.

Harris was 7-for-9 from the free-throw line to go with seven field goals on a night he did not start due to the flu.

Jackson led 13-12 after one quarter as Leopold's Dustin Thiele ended the period with a half-court shot for 3 points.

After that, the Indians methodically pulled away, however.

Larry Nussbaum led Leopold with 19 points, while Darren VanGennip added 15 and Thiele scored 11.

-- Rachel Crader and Toby Carrig of the SEMO News Service contributed to this story.