Cape Central girls fall to Park Hills, now prepare for C5D1 tourney

With district play around the corner, the Cape Central Tigers wrapped up regular season play in a clash with the Park Hills Central Rebels.

In the end, it was the Rebels emerging victorious with a 53-33 win over the host Tigers on Monday.

“We didn’t play very well,” Tigers coach Aaron Lee said. “We’re trying to mesh five new kids with five other kids, so there’s going to be some chemistry issues.”

From the start, the pressure put on by the Rebels appeared to overwhelm the Tigers as they struggled to take care of the ball, something they hope to figure out before Class 5 District 1 play begins On Feb. 28.

“We just didn’t handle the ball very well,” Lee said. “We didn’t make good decisions in transition.”

The turnovers, coupled with a flurry of missed shots, saw Cape Central trailing 14-4 after the opening quarter.

The next eight minutes of the contest didn’t go the Tigers’ way either as they trailed 31-6 entering the locker room at halftime.

In the opening minutes of the third quarter, the Tigers appeared to be more poised and composed, as they took care of the ball and generated good shots.

“I call it emotional stamina,” Lee said. “Right now we’re struggling with that. Which means when a team makes a run and then we make a run, we have to be willing to make another run. That’s why you’ll see us playing a good half or a really good quarter but we’re not able to put it together for four quarters. That’s been a struggle for us all year.”

Eventually, the Rebels found their form again and took a commanding 45-19 lead into the fourth quarter.

For the Tigers, playing Park Hills Central right before districts could serve as a valuable tune-up in terms of the level of competition they will see.

“They play more man-to-man than we’re accustomed to seeing,” Lee said. “Some of the teams in our district will play more man so hopefully getting some man looks will help us. But, we have to take care of the ball.”

Lee said he feels Class 5 District 1, which features his Tigers, DeSoto, Farmington, Festus, Hillsboro, North County, Sikeston and Windsor, is top heavy.

“The first five teams in our districts are really, really good,” Lee said. “After that, it kind of plateaus out. Depending on where we get drawn there’s a possibility for a second game. But we have to manage what we call controllable’s. The controllable’s are how you move in transition, pass the ball, rebound and how you box out. We can control all of those.”

While some people may say the lack of experience the Tigers have is a negative, Lee likes the potential fearlessness his group can play with entering postseason play.

“It can be (a positive) if we play hard,” Lee said. “We have to play hard first. If we play hard, all the other stuff can happen. It can’t happen without that level of intensity.”

Cape Central finishes the regular season 9-16 and awaits their seed in the C5D1 Tournament that will take place at Hillsboro High School.

“With the added depth we just got our focus for the next nine days has to be cleaning up the things that have been our achilles heel all season long,” Lee said.