2023 Southeast Missourian Christmas Tournament: Scott City upsets Woodland to reach fifth-place final

A big second quarter run proved to be the difference as the Scott City Rams advanced to the fifth-place game of the 2023 Southeast Missourian Christmas Tournament with a 76-65 win over the Woodland Cardinals on Thursday.

Both teams went back-and-forth to begin the contest as the Rams jumped out to a 17-15 lead after the opening quarter of action.

“I thought we came out aggressive,” Scott City coach Mark Dannenmueller said. “We were trying to do the right stuff but we weren’t guarding very well so we switched to a man-to-man. I thought we did a really good job guarding to start out the game and that carried over for us throughout the majority of the game.”

While the game was close in the opening eight minutes, the Rams quickly pushed their lead to seven less than two minutes into the second quarter.

Scott City continued to keep its foot on the gas as the Rams went on a 13-2 run to stretch the lead to 37-23 with just over two minutes to play in the first half.

Scott City’s run ended at 18-2 as the Rams took a commanding 44-26 lead into the locker room at halftime.

“We had a stretch where I thought we guarded really, really well,” Dannenmueller said. “We were making them take contested jump shots, boxing out and rebounding really well and it was allowing us to get out and run a little bit and offensively we took a lot of good shots.”

Dannenmueller said it was important for his group to sustain the momentum from the end of the first-half.

“When we have a team down we have to figure out how to put them away,” Dannenmueller said. “So, we had some stuff that we wanted to keep doing well and building off of.”

Beginning the second half the two teams once again traded buckets as the Rams led 65-45 entering the fourth quarter.

It appeared as if Scott City was going to cruise to the finish, but the Cardinals had one last push in them.

Woodland went on an 11-0 run that cut the Scott City lead to 67-56 just over four minutes into the fourth quarter.

The Woodland run would finally be snapped by Scott City’s Jackson Gloth as he knifed through the lane for a layup to push the Rams’ lead back to 13.

Dannenmueller felt his team played too quickly at times in the fourth quarter.

“We were playing too fast and we weren’t being strong with the basketball,” Dannenmueller said. “We were playing like it was a three or four point game but we were up big.”

Offensively, the Rams were led by Jackson Gloth who poured in a game-high 18 points in the win.

Also eclipsing double figure scoring for the Rams was Mark Panagos with 17 and Braeden Walton with 12 points.

On the opposing end, Woodland had three scorers in double figures as Brayden Hastings had 13 points, Korbin Kinder had 11 points and Trae Cook had 10 points.

Woodland (8-3) returns to regular season action at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 2, when tbe Cardinals host Richland (Essex).

Scott City (8-2) advances to the fifth-place game where the Rams will take on the winner of Oak Ridge and Kelly at 4:30 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 30, at the Show Me Center in Cape Girardeau.

__NO. 8 SCOTT CITY 76 , NO. 5 WOODLAND 65__

Scott City 17 27 21 11 — 76

Woodland 15 11 19 20 — 65

Scott City (76) — Jackson Gloth 18, Mark Panagos 17, Braeden Walton 12, Luke Umfleet 9, Kaden Lowery 8, Brenden Beussink 6, Jaylen Rulo 6. FG: 27. (3-pointers: Walton 2, Umfleet 1, Rulo 1)

Woodland (65) — Brayden Hastings 13, Korbin Kinder 11, Trae Cook 10, Reed Layton 9, Calvin Layton 8, Lane Lee 7, Hayden VanGennip 3, Bryer Sauls 2, Ellias Nenninger 2. FG: 25. (3-pointers: C. Layton 2, Lee 2, Hastings 1, R. Layton 1)