Cape Central boys basketball team uses height to overwhelm Bell City

Central senior T.J. Tisdell repeatedly exploited his height advantage Monday.

His teammates lobbed passes to him near the basket and he responded by catching and firing. Bell City only could watch most of the time.

"X's and O's aren't going to solve any height disadvantage like that," Bell City coach Nate Wills said. "We knew that was going to be a struggle for us."

Tisdell struck for 27 points in the Tigers' 89-27 victory. He spent the fourth quarter relaxing on the bench.

"My teammates gave me the ball and me finding open spots," Tisdell said. "I just give the credit to my teammates who put me in position to score. They just had confidence in me scoring, so they just threw the ball up to me, so I had to go up and get it and score."

Tisdell went 10 of 15 from the field (67 percent).

"He's a good player," Central coach Drew Church said. "He does some things inside. He moves well in there and he's a strong kid. He's going to do well in there, and he's a smart kid. There's going to be lots of people who double him, and he's going to be able to move and get rid of the ball."

Church said he knew his team needed to take advantage of its height advantage against the Cubs (2-5), but that's always his team's plan.

"That's our strategy for the whole year. You can go ahead and mark that down," he said. "We've got to play inside out. We really are discouraging quick shots, one-pass shots, except for layups and in transition. We've got to work around."

Bell City's offense never found a rhythm. The Cubs shot 26 percent from the field (9 of 35). Senior Josh Overbey led the way with 10 points.

"I am disappointed in the way we played," Wills said. "Not to say if we played well we would have beaten them, but I think we could have made a better showing than we did."

Garan Evans added 18 points for the Tigers.

Bell City 4 14 2 0 -- 27

Central 27 28 31 8 -- 89

BELL CITY (27) -- McKenzie Vires 2, Jerad Yates 4, Aaron Smith 4, Trey Geiger 3, Josh Overbey 10, Shane Hughes 4. FG 9, FT 7-11, F 19. (3-pointers: Yates 1, Overbey 1. Fouled out: none)

CENTRAL (89) -- Ross McClanahan 2, Vance Toole 9, Tim Booker 5, Devon Johnson 3, Garan Evans 18, T.J. Tisdell 27, Jamal Cox 7, Delontre Haney 8, Andre Statum 2, Bo Wilferth 8. FG 37, FT 12-26, F 17. (3-pointers: Toole 1. Fouled out: none)