ALTHOFF KO's TIGERS IN THIRD QUARTER

One bad quarter can spoil the whole barrel.

Such was the case Saturday night when a poor third quarter by Cape Central ruined an otherwise well-played Tiger performance.

Belleville-Althoff outscored Central 15-4 in the third quarter and that was enough as the Tigers fell 57-48 at Homecoming night at the Tiger Field House.

Cape Central took a 26-19 lead into halftime, but Belleville-Althoff outscored Central 15-4 in the third.

After committing just three turnovers in the first half, the Tigers turned the ball over five times in the third alone.

"Offensively, we tried to attack different areas," said Althoff coach Greg Leib of the third quarter. "But I felt bad for our fans who made the trip down here because we just jogged around in the first two quarters."

Althoff, which made just seven of its 23 shots in the first half, hit six of 15 in the third quarter. The Crusaders (10-12) tied the game at 28 at the 5:08 mark of the third then took the lead for good on its next possession with 3:56 left to go in the third.

"They started really running and jumping around," said Central coach Brett Reutzel. "That got to us a bit. And we changed some things (defensively) at halftime which may have been stupid on my part. We probably should've stayed with what we were doing since we had the lead. But I don't think we lost our concentration."

Central (7-12) trailed just 34-30 going into the fourth quarter. Althoff's lead grew to as large as eight with 4:18 left, but Central rallied back and cut it to 42-39 on a shot by Demetrius Totton with 3:43 left.

But Althoff scored on the rest of its eight possessions to secure the win.

Doug McMorris was sensational for Althoff scoring a game-high 26 points. Most of his points came on contested jump shots.

"He played with a lot of courage," said Leib. "His groin is so sore it hurts him when he coughs. He just did a great job. He's just another coach on the floor out there for us."

"My goodness did he knock down some tough shots," said Reutzel.

Ross Conner led Cape Central with 12 points, eight of which came in the first quarter. Eric Wessel added 15.

But the most emphatic points definitely came from Totton. At the 3:20 mark of the second quarter, Totton who noticed that Althoff had not yet set up its halfcourt defense slashed to the left side of the basket, exploded and threw down a dunk.

"That's something they'll remember for the rest of their lives," Reutzel said.

Totton's throwdown gave Central its biggest lead of the game 22-10 (they also led 24-12) with 4:51 to go in the second quarter. It was Totton's seventh consecutive point in the quarter. He ended up with nine.

Cape Central jumped out to a 12-8 lead going into the second quarter after hitting half of its 12 shots from the field.

Despite the loss, Reutzel saw some encouraging things.

"I think we're getting better all the time," he said. "The effort was there. It's unfortunate we haven't won more games and it's hard to get the guys to see the positives in the schedule we play. I teach Spanish and if my Spanish II students are still doing Spanish I material, they're not going to get better. You have to test yourself. All the tough road games and the tough schedule we play will be good for us. The conference race isn't over and we can still have a chance for the one seed in district."

Cape Central will play host to county rival Jackson on Tuesday.