Third time's a charm for Bell City
Southeast Missourian Christmas Tournament
CAPE GIRARDEAU -- The Bell City Cubs gained a measure of redemption with a convincing win over twice-victorious Scott County Central.
The Cubs, losers by five- and three-point margins to Scott Central, upended the Braves 80-60 in the quarterfinal round of the Southeast Missourian Christmas Tournament on Wednesday.
"It relieves a lot of stress for the team because we had to think about it a lot," said Bell City's all-state center Will Bogan.
The third game of the early-season trilogy proved to be rather anti-climactic as the fifth-seeded Cubs led from the opening tip. An 8-0 run set the early tempo for a 22-14 first-quarter lead.
Leading the way for Bell City was the dynamic duo of Nick Niemcyzk and Bogan.
"We're like Batman and Robin," quipped a smiling Bogan.
Niemcyzk, the junior guard, mixed an arsenal of runners and jump shots along with a couple of 3-pointers to score a game-high 31 points. He had 11 points in each of the first two quarters, including the final nine Bell City points in the last two minutes of the first half. Bell City led 42-24 at the half.
Bogan, the 6-foot-10, 315-pound senior post, recorded a double-double with 24 points and 17 rebounds.
"Having a couple of weapons like Bogan and Niemcyzk frees everybody else up," said Bell City coach Brian Brandtner. "They did a great job on defense and rebounding and gave us leadership out there."
Scott Central (6-2), the fourth seed, never seemed to get untracked. Offensively, the Braves shot a low percentage from the field, particularly from 3-point range, hitting just 1-of-14.
Bell City (6-4), the Class 1 state runner-up in 2005, led 61-44 after three quarters, then saw a fourth-quarter Scott Central run cut the margin to 13 but no closer.
"I knew, after the first two games, that there were some things we needed to work on and I think we did better in certain aspects of the game," said Brandtner. "We controlled the basketball a lot better tonight and were a lot more patient on offense."
Caleb Johnson paced the Braves with 18 points, Drew Thomas added 15, D.D. Gillespie 13 and Richard Brownlee 12.
Phillip Gross chipped in with 10 points for the Cubs.
Bell City advances to the winner's bracket semifinal against No. 1-seed Charleston on Friday at 6 p.m., setting up an intriguing matchup of two of the area's premier big men, Bogan and Charleston's Jamarcus Williams.
Scott Central will face Oran in a consolation bracket semifinal on Friday at 3 p.m.
Charleston 72, Oran 37
Perhaps bad news for the rest of the field, the top-seed Charleston Bluejays are fed up with underachieving.
The Bluejays, the perennial No. 1 seed but sent home earlier than expected the past three seasons after a 2002 championship, demolished the Oran Eagles 72-37 in the quarterfinals of the Southeast Missourian Christmas Tournament on Wednesday.
"We wanted to send a message tonight," said Charleston coach Danny Farmer. "We have an extra focus this year. We come down here and have a letdown every year and it seems like we don't get after it. We remember that."
The 'Jays (10-1) set the tone early with tenacious defensive pressure, building a 22-10 first-quarter lead.
"We didn't have any answer for their defensive pressure," said Oran coach Denver Stuckey. "About the first five minutes of the game, you could tell that our kids were overwhelmed by it."
Charleston kept the intensity up in the second quarter, limiting the Eagles to five points, while extending the lead to 36-15 at the half.
On the offensive end, the Bluejays ran the floor for several fastbreak conversions.
"We didn't want to give them any confidence and let them believe they could win," Farmer said.
After the halftime break, Charleston's 6-5 senior Jamarcus Williams carried the offense with 15 of his game-high 21 points in the third quarter as the lead ballooned to 62-29, triggering a running clock in the final quarter.
All-stater Williams, rounding into game shape following a broken leg suffered in football season, put up his most impressive offensive numbers of the season.
"He's getting better," said Farmer. "This past week, he had some good practices."
Justin Clark, Charleston's 6-4 perimeter shooter, finished with 19 points, 10 in the first quarter. Brian Parham added 10.
No. 9-seed Oran, coming off a thrilling overtime win over No. 8 Cape Central a day earlier, fell to 7-3 with a season-low offensive output.
"Oran's not a bad team," Farmer said. "I knew they were going to come out and be game tonight, and they did, but we just took them out of their game."
Chase Seyer was the lone Eagle in double figures with 11 points.
The number six-seed Advance Hornets looked like a legitimate threat to the number three-seed Jackson Indians during the first half of their second round contest.
However, the depth of Jackson eventually wore out the Hornets as they were defeated 95-70.
Jackson trailed by four points at the end of the first quarter and it took a Jake Leet three as the halftime buzzer sounded to give the Indians a one-point advantage, 48-47.
In a game that featured 48 fouls, it was the second-seeded Notre Dame who survived and thrived against seventh-seeded Scott City 93-64.
After saying his team needed to get the ball inside more after their first-
round victory, Notre Dame coach Paul Hale watched Ryan Willen dominate the paint early. The 6-7 junior scored 21 points in the first half and finished with 34.
The Bulldogs held a 24-16 lead after one quarter and put the game out of reach early by outscoring Scott City 32-17 in the second.
Oak Ridge, the bottom-seed of the 16 team Southeast Missourian Christmas Tournament, led number eight-seed Cape Central after one quarter and kept the score close throughout the first half before eventually falling 86-54.
Central had 12 different players put up points in the game. The Tigers were led by Jajuan Bell with 18. George Hamilton had 16 points while Kerry Walker added 11.
Number 11-seed Leopold Wildcats 70-50 in a consolation matchup.
Both teams started slowly scoring the basketball as a large part of the first quarter expired with the teams knotted at four points.
But Woodland's brother duo quickly found their stroke and left Leopold behind.
The Gaines brothers, Seth and Chad, accounted for 35 of the Cardinals' 70 points. Seth, a senior, netted a game-high 21 while younger brother Chad, a sophomore, scored 14.
The tenth-seeded Kelly Hawks rebounded nicely from a tough loss to rival Scott City to rout the Delta Bobcats 70-50.
Delta, the 15th-seed, started well and jumped out to an early 8-2 lead.
Although their lead did not last long, the underdog Bobcats were able to keep pace for the entirety of the first half, trailing only 29-26 after two quarters.
Kelly, though, would start the second half even better than Delta started the game. They quickly built a double-digit advantage by outscoring the Bobcats 22-8 in the third quarter. The Hawks maintained their advantage over the final quarter to advance in the consolation bracket.
Inside presence Spencer Ayers led the Hawks with 17 points while both Kyle Chipman and Dallas Tew added 11.
Tyler Martin score more than half of Delta's points in the game by pouring in 27. Brent Sauceda scored seven points and Nate Stroder six for the Bobcats.
In the opening game of the consolation play, the 13-seed Chaffee Red Devils upended the 12-seed Meadow Heights Panthers 65-53.
As may be expected, the early morning game got off to a slow start as a low scoring first quarter produced a 9-4 Chaffee advantage.
However, Chaffee arrived prepared to play and picked up the scoring pace in the second quarter.
By halftime, the Red Devils had built a 13-point cushion, and though they would be tested in the second half, would never relinquish the lead.
Chaffee's Andy Hendrix led all scorers with 20 points while Moyers finished with 12.