Cape Central stays perfect; blows by NMCC

The freshman duo of Marquel Murray and Tyseandre’ Edwards had a huge impact in the Cape Central Tigers 75-54 win over New Madrid County Central on Tuesday at Cape Central High School.

Murray finished the game with 16 points on four made threes and Edwards finished with 9 points and an impressive night defensively guarding Eagles star Jadis Jones.

“Tyseandre’ did a great job on defense and rebounding,” Tigers coach Drew Church said. “Ty is learning how to play. He’s finding the gaps, playing within the team and taking a shot when it’s there.”

Edwards said the way the Tigers defended was the key to success.

“We were being patient, playing hard and playing physical,” Edwards said.

Church felt Murray responded well after working on some things after the win over Hazelwood Central.

“I thought he did a good job of (slowing things down) tonight,” Church said.

It was a tightly contested first quarter as the two teams went back and forth and Cape Central took a 15-11 lead after the first.

The Tigers' offense kept rolling in the second as they won the quarter 19-13 and took a 34-24 lead into the locker room at halftime.

“I saw an intensity level tonight that was probably one of the higher intensity levels we’ve had this year,” Church said. “All in all, it was just a great team effort, especially when we had some stuff not go our way early.”

The first-half predicament for the Tigers came early as Cam Williams picked up his third foul with over five minutes left in the second quarter.

“We had some guys step up,” Church said.

It was Edwards who was matched up with Jadis Jones all evening and in the fourth quarter, Edwards fouled out.

“He was aggressive,” Church said. “New Madrid is a good team. Jadis is so hard to guard in transition and in the post and then (BJ) Williamson he’s hard to stay in front of and he’s so strong. This is a good game for us. Like I said, I’m happy but we have a long way to go.”

Edwards knew coming in it would take physicality to match up with Jones.

“You have to use your fouls,” Edwards said.

The Tigers were able to take over the game after the third quarter as they led 57-40 heading into the fourth.

Jaydon Reynolds led the way on offense with 19 points on four made threes. Despite a slow first half due to foul trouble, Cam Williams finished with 17 points and Marquel Murray had 16 points.

For the Eagles, it was Jadis Jones leading the way with 26 points in the loss. BJ Williamson had 12 points to follow up Jones’ big night.

NMCC (9-5) will be back in action at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 20 when the Eagles host Dexter.

Cape Central (17-0) will look to stay perfect as the Tigers hit the road to battle the Jackson Indians at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 20.

“It’s really hard to beat a good team three times,” Church said. “Coach Thoma does a good job over there and they’ll be ready for us. I look for it to be another really close game and I hope our intensity level is as high as it was tonight.”