Annual basketball tourney begins today

A Southeast Missourian Christmas Tournament meeting has become a tradition for the Leopold and Oak Ridge boys basketball teams.

The Wildcats and Blue Jays will meet in the first round of the 16-team tournament for a third consecutive year today at the Show Me Center. While Leopold has posted lopsided victories over Oak Ridge as the tournament's No. 6 seed the past two seasons, this year the teams will cap Day 1 in the No. 8 seed vs. No. 9 seed matchup scheduled to begin at 9 p.m.

"I think people would be lying if they said, 'Oh, it's just another game,'" Oak Ridge coach Adam Stoneking said of tournament games. "I think maybe your bigger schools, you know Jackson, Cape, Notre Dame -- coming from the SEMO Conference tournament where you kind of have maybe the top eight teams in the whole area, it's maybe not be that big of deal to them, but I know it's a big deal to the kids. I remember when I was at Notre Dame [as an assistant coach] it was a big deal to the kids, and my kids I know they get really excited about it. Win, lose -- they're always excited -- doesn't matter if you're playing on the consolation side, you're playing for fifth place or you're playing for first, the kids do get really excited about being there and getting to play inside the Show Me Center. It is a big deal to the kids."

Stoneking said he didn't think getting revenge on Leopold was a high priority for his players, who lost in heart-breaking fashion to the Wildcats at the Woodland Tournament last month when Leopold's Parker Brown hit a 3-pointer with 6 seconds left in the game to give his team a 52-50 win, but he does his team can learn from that game.

"We look at all the things they tried to do offensively and the things they tried to do defensively and we try to counteract those as much as we can," Stoneking said. "I'm sure they're probably doing the same thing, so I'm sure they will do a few things a little differently, but your man offense stays the same and your zone offense kind of stays the same. So we know what kind of things from that first game -- what are they looking for, what are their strengths now, what are they looking to try to do against our defense. That kind of seems to be a theme with our match-up zone -- teams will come out and they'll try to pick something apart early on, and so we have to make that early adjustment. Well, now we already know what their plan was in the last game. … If they try and do something different, they do, but we definitely want to try and scheme towards what advantages did we find last time and what things didn't work for us that we need to stay away from."

Stoneking, who is in his sixth season at Oak Ridge, said he avoids holding practices on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day so that his players can be with their families, but the team holds a walk-through on the morning the tournament starts.

It's just the opposite for No. 5 seed Scott County Central and coach Frank Staple, who holds practice both days.

"We're in that gym a lot here at SCC," Staple said with a laugh.

"We try to keep it the same as what I've done since I've been here when I was with coach [Kenyon] Wright," Staple said in an interview on Monday. "We practiced today, we'll practice tomorrow, we'll come in on Christmas morning and have a little shootaround and then we'll come in the day of the tournament and have a little shootaround and walk-through."

SCC will face No. 12 Scott City in the opening game of the night session at 4:30 p.m. Entrance to each session of the tournament costs $4.

The Braves enter the tournament on a high note after defeating top-seeded Oran to claim the Oran Invitational Tournament title on Saturday.

"I think obviously we're doing a lot of things good," Staple said. "I think coming off that win it does give us a little momentum, but we always feel like we have a lot of work to do. You come into the Christmas Tournament -- for us to win that thing it would be quite an accomplishment -- very, very tough. But we're just going to try to take it one game at a time. ... We've got to get better defensively, and we've got to clean up some things in the half-court set.

Staple later backed away from his "one game at a time" statement.

"We try to break it down even more than that," he said. "We try to just focus on one practice at a time. You know with young kids, you know they can kind of look ahead to things, but I'll say with this group they've been pretty focused. Right now our focus is completely on Scott City because coach [Mark] Dannenmueller's teams are always going to be well-coached and we've got a lot of respect for them, so right now our total focus is on Scott City and we'll just go from there."

SCC is also bolstered by the recent return of all-state guard LaRandis Banks, who made his season debut on Dec. 17 after missing several months of preperation and play because of problems with his blood pressure.

"We're a complete team now with him back, and obviously when you have a kid with that type of ability it allows you to do a lot of things that's really going to help your team," Staple said. "But I've always said I'm proud of -- when he was gone -- all the guys that stepped up. I think it helped to make us a better team being able to do some of the things we did when he was gone, but now that he's back I think it kind of takes us to another level. We have a whole lot of work to do, but with him in there it's going to help us get there."

The Braves could face No. 4 seed Notre Dame in the second round. The seeding meeting took place before the Bulldogs played a game this season due to weather delays, but they boast what is likely the second-best resume in the field after a second-place finish at the SEMO Conference Tournament.

No. 1 Jackson, the SEMO Conference Tournament champion, will open the tournament with a 9 a.m. game against No. 16 Delta today. The Indians are undefeated at 5-0 and a favorite to take home their first tournament title sice 2007.

No. 2 Charleston is the two-time defending tournament champion.

"We look forward to playing the bigger schools," Staple said. "I mean, one thing that Scott Central's always done is play the high-level competition. We just believe that that gets you ready for the postseason. We embrace it. We embrace the challenge, and we just want to come in and compete, hopefully come in and be able to get four days out of this thing and hopefully at the end of the day it'll make us a better team."