Advance rallies late to defeat Bell City

ADVANCE -- Advance used a 19-10 fourth quarter to erase a 5-point deficit and post a 57-53 SCAA win over Bell City, the league's defending champions, Tuesday at the Hornet's Nest in Advance.

"I was disappointed in our energy level tonight (Tuesday)," first-year Advance coach Josh Dowdy stated. "With that said, this team knows how to win and I am proud of them for the effort they gave when their back was against the wall."

Bell City trailed by three after the first quarter, but rallied to tie the gam at 29-all at the half.

Coach Brian Brandtner's team outscored Advance 14-9 in the third, before the Hornets rallied in front of the home crowd to snatch the win away from the league's perennial power.

"I don't want to take anything away from coach Brandtner and his kids," Dowdy noted. "He does a great job and has them playing very well right now."

Advance's David VanGennip hit a 3-pointer late in the game to turn momentum in the Hornets' direction.

"David (VanGennip) hit a clutch 3 right in front of our bench with about 2 / minutes to play to push the lead to five," Dowdy said. "After that we did an excellent job at the end of the game taking care of the basketball to hang on for the victory.

Advance improved to 3-1 overall and 1-0 in SCAA play.

Advance will next be in action Friday when the Hornets will take on the team Dowdy coached last season, Puxico.

Brad Steil led the Hornets with 16 points, followed by David VanGennip with 14 and Luke Steil with 10.

Bell City was paced offensively by Ronnie Gross with 16, while Melvin Johnson added 13 and Jeff Long dropped in 11.

By David Jenkins

SEMO News Service

SIKESTON -- It isn't very often the Charleston Bluejay are eliminated from a tournament on just the second night. Unfortunately for the Bluejays that is just what happened Tuesday night after falling to the Cape Central Tigers 51-46 in the consolation semifinals of the SEMO Conference Tournament.

Cape Central, who lost to the Sikeston Bulldogs 74-30 on Monday night, took it to the two-time defending SEMO Conference Tournament champion Bluejays from the opening tip, beginning the game on a 13-3 run.

"Cape just outplayed us," said Charleston coach Danny Farmer. "I thought Cape wanted the game a lot more. We played well in spurts but when it came to the end, Cape wanted the game more and they deserved to win."

"I think we played well at times," said Cape Central coach Drew Church. "More than anything they played hard. That is something I preach to these guys is that if they play hard, good things will happen. We had stretches where we didn't take care of the ball too well, but overall I'm proud of them."

The Tigers led the game 15-7 after one quarter but Charleston used their quickness to force 10 turnovers in the second quarter and cut the lead to 25-21 at the half.

However, Cape Central came out hot in the second half, building at 32-23 lead but once again Charleston (1-4) responded, cutting the lead to two points several times in the fourth quarter but the Bluejays were never able to tie the game.

Cape Central finished the game with 28 turnovers, however, Charleston was unable to convert many of theturnovers into baskets.

"We forced some turnovers but we didn't capitalize either," said Farmer. "I don't think we came to play tonight. We played a good game against Notre Dame last night and we probably watched the Sikeston/Cape game and didn't take (Cape Central) seriously. And Cape came and outplayed us tonight."

Cape Central used their size inside with the duo of 6-4 senior Rick Russell and 6-6 junior Zack Boerboom.

Russell finished the game with 15 points and 12 rebounds while Boerboom added 10 points and six rebounds.

"We need to continue to get them touches and we need them to play well but we have got to get better guard play to handle pressure and get the ball to them," Church said.

For the game, Cape Central outrebounded Charleston 31-16.

"They rebounded the ball well tonight but that is going to be a problem for us every night because we are not very tall," Farmer said. "But we have to hustle and play hard all the time and we didn't do that tonight."

Cape Central (2-2) will play the winner of the Dexter-Jackson game on Fiday at 5:30 p.m. for the consolation championship.

Poplar Bluff 60,

Jackson 36

The Poplar Bluff Mules rolled into the semifinals of the SEMO Conference Tournament by beating Jackson 60-36 Tuesday night.

The Mules outscored Jackson 15-2 in the first quarter and held the cold-shooting Indians without a field goal for the first 10 minutes of the game.

Poplar Bluff was led by Riley Raulston's 17 points and six rebounds. Jay Raulston added 10 points and nine rebounds and Chris Kilgore chipped in 10 points as well.

Jackson was led by Cody Green's 11 points.

Poplar Bluff will take on NMCC at 8:30 p.m. Thursday while Jackson will play Dexter at 5:30 p.m.

By Chris Pobst

sd_sports@yahoo.com

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 onto 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.

By Josh Mills

sd_sports@yahoo.com

PORTAGEVILLE -- The Portageville Bulldogs racked up their second consecutive victory of the season in the gym as they handed the visiting Kelly Hawks a 57-38 loss Tuesday evening.

Portageville outscored the Hawks 17-9 in the first quarter, 20-4 in the second quarter and led 37-13 at half. Kelly head coach Nate Wills said that his players lacked the intensity that it takes to compete with the speed that the Bulldogs bring to the court each time out.

"We've got to take care of a couple of things," said Wills. "We've got to take better care of the basketball. We're not very big, so we've got to make a better effort to go to the glass. And, we've got to have more intensity. We've been disappointed with our intensity the last few games and we've got to do something about that."

"We're not coming out ready to play and we're not giving the best effort with every possession that we have," he added. "We've got to do that, because when you play a team like Portageville, every possession is crucial."

Every possession was crucial for the Hawks as they coughed up the ball over 20 times to the tight defense of the Bulldogs. Byron Wright led Portageville in steals with eight on the night.

On the glass, Kelly was outrebounded 34-13. Levi Felter recorded six for the Hawks while Donnell Minnis led the Bulldogs with nine.

"We got outrebounded pretty hard on the glass," said Wills. "Portageville does what they do -- they come in and make the most of every possession that they have. They're going to get quick and easy ones and they're going to break down the defense, take their time and score. They're very quick."

Felter also had 14 points for the Hawks, tied with Josh DeBrock for the team-high on the evening.

Wright led the way offensively for the Bulldogs as he scored 16 on the evening to go with his eight steals and five rebounds.

Portageville head coach Jim Bidewell was pleased with his squads second win on the season and said that a large part of the victory was owed to the seniors who took control of the game early.

"I think our intensity was good," said Bidewell. "We've had the first two at home and that helps playing in front of the home crowd. I was pleased that our seniors kind of took control of the game. We had a slow start but we ended up playing well."

Kelly outscored Portageville 25-20 in the second half, but the rally was too late to make a difference in the final outcome. The Hawks are now 2-2 on the season as they travel to St. Vincent on Friday evening.

The Bulldogs, now 2-0 on the year, will be in Hayti Friday evening for their next contest.