Braves' pressure defense may mean trouble for Fair Play

COLUMBIA -- The Fair Play boys basketball team committed 21 turnovers in its 54-42 loss to Glasgow in the second Class 1 semifinal boys basketball game Thursday at Mizzou Arena.

Now the Hornets will have to brace for Scott County Central's defensive pressure.

"It's a different type of pressure they put on you," Fair Play coach Lynn Long said. "I told our guys in the locker room, I don't think they have anybody that's the same kind of offensive threat the Lee kid is, but they have three or four guys who are similar athletes."

Lee is Glasgow junior guard Jay Lee, who came in averaging 30.5 points per game and scored 32 on Thursday with three steals.

Fair Play was led by 6-foot-1 senior Daniel Durst's 15 point and 6-2 junior Jordan Sukovaty's 14.

"They're an awful good team," Long said of the Braves. "They have great athletes. They really pound the offensive glass. We're really going to have our work cut out for us."

Different schedule

Toby Carrig ~ tcarrig@semissourian.com Meadville's Kendra Holcer traveled while Delta's Amanda Drew (14) and Taylor Smith (12) closed in for a trap.

Delta coach Randy White noted strength of schedule as a factor in preparing his two-loss team for unbeaten Meadville.

"We play two 1A schools on our regular schedule," White said, "and I believe their ballclub plays 20-some-odd 1A schools, so I think that had us prepared for this ballgame."

Said Meadville's Tony Fairchild: "There's just a lot of Class 1 schools around us. We have a couple Class 2 schools, but mostly it's Class 1. I know there's not a lot of Class 1 basketball down in the southeast part, and they usually play Class 2 and Class 3."

Meadville's Kaci Sargent admitted a difference in playoff time.

Scott County Central fans cheered on their team during the Class 1 semifinals Thursday in Columbia.

"We haven't really played any competition," she said, "so normally when we walk out on the floor, we're not real excited, just ready to play. This time we knew -- and in the two previous games -- we knew we were going to come up against some competition, so we were a little nerved, and a little rattled, and I think it showed."

Big hopes

The Delta girls basketball program has been to the final four on three other occasions -- 1980, 2003 and 2006 -- but has yet to win a title. It earned a second-place finish in 1980, losing in the championship game 68-42 to Fairfax. It earned third-place finishes in 2003 and 2006.

White, in his seventh year at Delta, said brining home a first-place trophy would mean a great deal to the community.

Scott County Central sophomore guard drives the ball against Jefferson 6-foot-7 senior Doug Archer after making a steal. (Toby Carrig)

"Being a small community, everybody gets involved in it -- everybody," White said. "You have people you may not see the entire year at a ballgame. But they're listening on the radio or all of a sudden they show up at a playoff game. And that [a title] would really be big for our community."

Balanced attack

Sarah Keys was Delta's leading scorer in Thursday's semifinal win over Meadville with 16 points. But she was pleased with the balance of the offense. Seven Bobcats contributed, including Taylor Smith with 14 points, Jodi Menz with six, Sara Blattel with five and Alison Burger with four.

The Bobcats shot 37 percent in the game, including 36.4 percent from 3-point range. Delta converted 4-of-9 treys in the first half.

Scott County Central junior Drew Thomas looked up at the scoreboard after the Braves' 70-68 loss to Jefferson.

"We have wide-spread scoring, and I think that it helps that we have people who can come off the bench, score, and do just as good as the starting five," Keys said.

Keys added that her team also played strong defense, frequently rotating forwards to limit Meadville's top offensive weapon, Sargent, who scored 27 points.

"We had different post players coach White would run in and out to make her tired, and we just kept pressure on her," Keys said of defending Sargent. "She's a very athletic player though."

A different team

When Jefferson coach Tim Jermain was asked how Scott County ranked with some of the other teams his program has played in Columbia in recent years, he said the Braves are just different.

"We've played some teams down here that have had some really big guys, and I don't think we've played anyone that was overall that quick," he said of Scott County. "They rank right up there. They are a great team. They are just different than some of the other ones."

Jermain added that he hopes his team's experience in big games over the past few years at state helped it to get past the Braves.

"We'd like to think so, that the experiences of being down here does play into our favor," Jermain said. "To be in these big games and to have this experience hopefully does help us."

Undaunted Eagles

The Braves went on an 18-5 run over the final 4:06 of the third to take a lead. But Jefferson overcame the Braves' pace and pressure in the fourth to come away with the win.

"We just had some bad plays there, but we knew that we could pull through," Jefferson's Kevin Moffat said. "We just had to pull together as a team, finish as a team."

Jermain said he told his players in between the third and fourth quarters not to hang their heads because Scott County had converted some difficult shots.

"They had hit some tough shots and hopefully they weren't going to continue to keep hitting those really tough shots," Jermain said, discussing what he told his players.

Odds and ends

• Scott County Central girls coach Semona Penrod joined Ronnie Cookson and Lennies McFerren Jr. on the bench Thursday.
• Sargent, the leading player for the Meadville girls team, had state experience. She finished fourth in the 200 meters, third in the 400 and second in the triple jump last spring at the Class 1 state meet.
• Jefferson's Craig Mattson on grabbing the rebound of D.D. Gillespie's second missed free throw to seal the win: "I was just watching the clock tick down and a second-and-a-half took about an hour there."