Central boys basketball team defeats Jackson 60-51

It looked like the Central boys basketball team could be headed toward another dramatic finish Tuesday night after losing games on back-to-back nights by a combined three points last week.

The Tigers led rival Jackson by just two points entering the fourth quarter, but they scored the first five points of the period and never faltered on their way to a 60-51 win at the Show Me Center.

"I keep telling them, last week, it happened for a reason," Central coach Drew Church said. "For one reason or another, I have a belief that that happened to us for a reason, whether it was to make us tougher or whether we were to learn from it or just about you can't give up every possession. Whatever. That happened to us for a reason, so hopefully down the line we're in those close games now we understand it's 32 minutes. Not 31 or 30, but 32 minutes."

Central made 12 of 16 free-throw attempts in the fourth quarter Tuesday.

"We executed in the fourth quarter," Church said. "We took good shots. We were able to get the ball to the right people to take free throws, and that's good. We need to be able to close out games like that."

Jackson’s Caleb Newcomer fires a pass past Central’s Vance Toole during the second quarter Tuesday at the Show Me Center. (Laura Simon)

Central senior Vance Toole was the right person Tuesday night. He finished tied for the team lead with 16 points, and he was 8 of 8 from the free-throw line in the fourth.

"If you can get rhythm going, they'll start to go in, but I haven't really shot many free throws this year," said Toole, who Church called the team's best free-throw shooter. "I don't even know how many I shot that game, but that was probably close to how many I've shot all year."

Central led by as many as 10 points in the second quarter as the inside combination of senior T.J. Tisdell and sophomore Jamal Cox helped the Tigers build a 10-point lead with three minutes left in the first half by taking advantage of second-chance opportunities in the paint.

"That's one thing that they've done all year is they get us second chances," Church said. "That's huge when you look at a whole game and you see how many more possessions you get just from them keeping the ball alive. That's one thing that you credit Jamal and T.J. with, they were relentless on the boards and they're going to battle. Every game we have that's a huge deal for us."

Central (16-6) took 10 more shots than Jackson (13-10) in the first half, and Tisdell and Cox scored 16 of the Tigers' first 31 points.

"Cape did a good job of being physical around the basket and rebounding," Jackson coach Darrin Scott said. "They hurt us with some second shots especially. I give them credit for that. That's something we've got to keep getting better at, keep working at."

Jackson allowed Tisdell and Cox to score just six points over the final 19 minutes of the game. The Indians rallied back to trail just 33-30 at halftime and trailed by three points or fewer for much of the third quarter.

"That was our point of emphasis coming in, clearly," Scott said about slowing Central inside. "I thought John [Meyer] did a good job on Tisdell the second half. I thought we did a better job of moving our feet and getting in front of him to take away his driving lanes. The first half, he was being really aggressive attacking the basket and we weren't getting in front of him like we needed to."

Jackson sophomore Karson King, who finished with a team-high 12 points, earned Jackson a 41-41 tie with 26 seconds left in the third quarter with conventional three-point plays on consecutive possessions. But Tim Booker's layin just before the buzzer gave Central a lead it never gave back.

"I'm glad other kids stepped up," Church said. "We're hitting that time of year now where we need to have everybody hitting on all cylinders and everybody have their confidence.

"Ross [McClanahan] and Vance are stepping up. Garan [Evans] been playing well. Tim's playing well, and even Jacob Boerboom came in tonight and gave us some huge toughness, hustle plays. You talk about getting yourself second chances? Well, Jacob diving on the floor and doing stuff that's not in the newspaper, that's huge. Little stuff like that are details that we've been talking about in the scope of a game. We've had some tough ones lately, and we talk about one possession can be the difference."

Jackson 15 15 11 10 -- 51

Central 18 15 10 17 -- 60

JACKSON (51) -- Josh Daume 5, Caleb Newcomer 9, Braxton McDowell 2, Calvin Lysell 4, Karson King 12, Luke Stevens 4, John Meyer 7, Blake Reynolds 8. FG 18, FT 10-14, F 17. (3-pointers: Daume 1, Newcomer 2, Reynolds 2. Fouled out: none)

CENTRAL (60) -- Ross McClanahan 11, Vance Toole 16, Tim Booker 5, Garan Evans 5, T.J. Tisdell 16, Jamal Cox 6, Jacob Boerboom 1. FG 19, FT 18-24, F 14. (3-pointers: McClanahan 2, Booker 1, Evans 1. Fouled out: none)