Bell City shakes off lopsided loss to knock off Scott City 68-55

Trying to find words to explain the worst aspect of his team's first-round loss, Bell City senior Jeff Long decided to forgo dissecting the Cubs' defensive shortfalls or overall lack of energy and settled on the obvious.

"Getting beat bad," he said, shuttering at the memory of the 28-point loss.

Long found another word to describe how the team felt.

Embarrassed.

The Cubs rebounded Monday with a 68-55 victory over Scott City to advance to the consolation semifinals of the Southeast Missourian Christmas Tournament.

Scott City sophomore Zach Cotner watches his shot Monday during Day 2 of the Southeast Missourian Chistmas Tournament at the Show Me Center. (Kit Doyle)

"We planned to play a lot better than we did the first day," Bell City coach Chris Miller said, "and just try to play a little bit harder, play a little bit smarter."

The Cubs fell behind early, prompting Miller to call a timeout with his team trailing 9-8 with 3:23 left in the first quarter.

Bell City answered with a 10-2 run after the timeout and never trailed again. Then again, the Cubs never really were able to close out the Rams, allowing a double-digit lead to shrink to single digits several times.

Miller said he was wasn't comfortable with his team's lead until the "buzzer went off."

"They did a good job," Miller said of Scott City. "They fought hard. They're going through a tough time over there, but the kids are trying to play hard, and as a coach, that's all you can ask for."

Bell City senior Jeff Long drives to the basket Monday, December 28, 2009, during Day 2 of the Southeast Missourian Chistmas Tournament at the Show Me Center. (Kit Doyle)

Scott City (1-6), which has made two coaching changes since the beginning of the season, was eliminated from the tournament.

"I told my kids we'll take an ugly win instead of a pretty loss or an ugly loss for that matter," Miller said. "We did a good job of just kind of sticking with each other. We've just got to get better and that's what we talk about every day."

Now the Cubs are one step closer to reaching the goal they've talked about reaching during the tournament.

"Our biggest goal was to come in here and play four days, and one way or another, I think that we're good enough to do that," Miller said.

"We want to play on the fourth day, us seniors," said Long, who led the Cubs with 19 points. "We want to go out good our last Christmas Tournament."

Bell City 14 14 20 20 -- 68

Scott City 9 16 15 15 -- 55

BELL CITY (68) -- Skylor Blackler 18, Jason Hess 9, Terence Liggins 2, Leonard Schaefer 5, Terrance Johnson 4, Jeff Long 19, Josh Overbey 2, Jason Miller 4, Chris Carpenter 1, Tim Long 4. FG 26, FT 14-18, F 12. (3-pointers: Hess 1, J. Long 1. Fouled out: none)

SCOTT CITY (55) -- Landon Robert 3, Skylar Cobb 21, Blake Crail 2, Alex Eichhorn 4, Justin Modglin 7, Zach Cotner 8, Zach Estes 2, Corey Rogers 4, Kyle Lacey 4. FG 24, FT 5-14, F 16. (3-pointers: Robert 1, Cobb 1. Fouled out: none)