Scott Central wins sixth straight title

CHAFFEE -- Scott County Central's dominance in the Scott-Miss Tournament continued on Friday, but not without a scare from Scott City.

On a night when Scott City's Zach Cotner scored his 1,000th point, the Rams couldn't pull off the upset, falling to Scott Central 76-71, giving the Braves their sixth-straight championship.

"These kids knew it was going to be a battle from the get-go," Scott Central coach Kenyon Wright said. "(Scott City coach) Mark Dannenmueller does a fantastic job coaching his kids and he has them playing just like they need to be playing.

"It was a battle all night long. They'd never go away and kept hitting shots when they needed to."

Scott Central's last loss in the Scott-Miss Conference Tournament came in 2006 when they dropped the championship to Kelly 60-57. The last time the Braves didn't make the finals was in the 2001 season.

That streak was nearly snapped Friday when, late in the fourth, Scott Central watched a one-time 10-point lead shrink to three.

Capping a 8-3, two-minute run, Cotner took an inbound pass from Landon Robert before putting up a shot in the lane that closed the Rams to within 68-65 with 1:54 to play.

"We kind of settled down and knew what we had to do," Cotner said. "We did what we did against Charleston, settled down and tried to make little runs at them.

"We would make stops and score, make stops and score."

Seconds after the Rams had closed to within a possession, however, Scott Central put together a big four-point play that was missed when a Dominique Porter was initially called.

After Porter hit the first of his free throws, Wright met with the refs to argue that a shot made by LaRandis Banks was good before the foul.

After the refs confirmed Wright's observation, the points were added before Porter sank his final free throw to go up 72-65.

"I watched LaRandis make it and then a switch went off in my mind," Wright said. "Andrew Pullen, one of my assistants said, 'the basket counted, the basket counted.'

"That was all on my bench, they were watching that. That was their two points."

With the Braves newfound seven-point lead and under two-minutes to play, Scott City was forced to foul, watching Scott Central go 3 of 4 from the line to stay up 75-69 with 30 seconds remaining.

Forcing a turnover on Scott City's next possession while taking advantage of a few missed by the Rams, the Braves held on for the win.

Only up by one at the half, Scott Central outscored the Rams 21-15 to take a seven-point advantage, at 56-49 into the fourth.

Leading the Braves, who shot 67 percent from the floor, Dominique Porter had 27 points to go along eight rebounds and five steals. LaMarcus Steward had 17 points, seven rebounds and seven assists. Banks and Jaylen Porter had 13 and 12 points respectively.

"I like to have a game where they're going to push us to our last capabilities and make us show them what we're made of," Dominique Porter said. "So we can show them we're still the No. 1 team in Class 1. Not just winning this tournament, every game that we win means a lot to us."

For Scott City, Cotner finished with a game-high 28 points, followed by Ryan Brock with 13.

Of hitting his 1,000 point, which came late in the third, Cotner said, "It feels good. I wish we would have won and it would have meant lot more, but it does mean a whole lot to me."

Scott City 15 19 15 22 - 71

Scott Central 16 19 21 20 - 76

SCOTT CITY (71) -- Landon Robert 8, Jesse Sanders 7, Tyler Adams 9, Jonathan McFall 6, Zach Cotner 28, Ryan Brock 13. FG 29, FT 9-12, F 20. (3-pointers: Sanders 1, Adams 3. Fouled out: Adams.)

SCOTT CENTRAL (76) -- Larandis Banks 13, Jaylen Porter 12, Antonio Johnson 7, Dominique Porter 27, LaMarcus Steward 17. FG 28, FT 16-24, F 13. (3-pointers: Banks 1, Porter 2, Johnson 1. Fouled out: none.)

VARSITY 3RD PLACE Oran 49, Chaffee 32

The Oran Eagles won a low scoring contest in the varsity third place contest, 49-32 over Chaffee.

Oran 8 13 8 20 -- 49

Chaffee 6 6 9 11 -- 32

ORAN (49) -- Kody Moore 10, Seth Ressel 19, Blake Carlyle 3, Alex Heuring 5, Blake Henson 7, Adam Schaefer 5. FG 18, FT 8-16, F 14. (3-pointers: Moore 2, Ressel 2, Schaefer 1. Fouled out: none).

CHAFFEE (32) -- Peyton Montgomery 8, Zach Dannemueller 14, Cody Johnson 2, Layton Tenkhoff 2, Jordan Yahn 6. FG 13, FT 6-19, F 17. (3-pointers: none. Fouled out: none).