Advance coach picks up 500th career win

Jim Hall entered the second round of the seMissourian Christmas Tournament still searching for the magic number.

After three long losses and two weeks of waiting, the Advance Hornets found the historic touch.

"It's sorta like getting a monkey off your back," Hall said Friday after his 500th career win as a coach, a victory over Chaffee in a consolation quarterfinal.

Hall began his run in 1964 and spent the first 27 seasons at Dexter, retiring in the middle of his term. He came back to Dexter in 1980 to coach for 15 more years before retiring again.

Hall was talked into coaching again at Advance in 1996 and has coached there ever since.

"I have had the good fortune of working with a lot of good kids," he said. "I have a lot of people to thank: the people at Dexter for having the confidence to hire me and the Advance program for asking me to come out of retirement. I've also had a lot of good assistant coaches along the way. I am eternally thankful for everybody."

Hall's players are thankful as well.

"We just go out there and play hard, and we've been wanting to get this one," senior Eric O'Hare said. "Its feels good."

"It seems like I started yesterday," Hall said. "I've had a great time."

Been there, done that

Danny Dohogne roamed the court when Notre Dame last won -- or played for -- the Christmas tournament title.

Dohogne was an all-state player for the Bulldogs when they defeated Scott County Central for the title in 1986.

He's now sitting on the bench, serving as an unpaid assistant to Darrin Scott.

"I like to help out some and make my old school be as good as it can be," said Dohogne, who also assisted last year.

Dohogne harkened back to 1986 when Notre Dame was one of three defending -- and soon to repeat -- state champions in the field.

"I just remember playing at Houck Field House," Dohogne said. "There were a lot of good memories there. They always had to turn people away and it was always jam packed and loud."

The current Bulldogs are in line for their own title game memories.

"Just one more win and we'll have a chance for the championship," Dohogne said.

High-flying act tumbles

Running the break against Kelly, Charleston's Ashton Farmer set up Kewain Gant on what looked to be a sure-fire SportsCenter jam.

Looks were deceiving.

After taking the backboard pass, Gant thundered down with two hands but rimmed the ball out and got a technical for hanging on the rim. Kelly's Major Burger hit one of two free throws on the other side to turn a jazzy two-point attempt into a negative for Charleston.

Gant and Farmer sat out about the next four minutes per coach Danny Farmer's orders.

Joshua Strayhorn showed his teammate Gant how it was done in the fourth quarter, driving on the fast break and slamming it down, without the technical.

Playing through the pain

Advance has played through this week's tournament with an illness, but it's not just one player. The whole team seems to have caught the bug, which is an upper respiratory infection that's slowed the team at least a couple of days.

"We've hardly been able to practice this week," Hall said. "We're pretty banged up all around."

Farmer makes his return

Charleston coach Danny Farmer was on his best behavior Friday, a day after sitting out a game due to a suspension. Farmer was ejected from last Friday's game at Caruthersville and faced a one-game suspension because of it.

Farmer said he wasn't about to pick up another technical in the tournament.

"I knew how far I could go," he said.

-- Jeff Breer, David Unterreiner, David Wilson