Central boys basketball team upends Sikeston 61-50

SIKESTON, Mo. -- The Sikeston faithful packed their home gymnasium for Friday night's SEMO Conference boys basketball game, and the table was set.

The Bulldogs carried a six-game winning streak into the contest but needed one more victory to make a convincing case for the coveted top seed in the Class 4, District 1 tournament.

The only problem? Central had a case to make as well.

Led by a game-high 22 points from Al Young, the Tigers held Sikeston to 24 percent (9 of 38) shooting from the field in the second half and came away with a 61-50 win at the Sikeston Field House.

"Any time you can come here in this facility against their program and get a W, you don't ask questions," Central coach Drew Church said. "You just kind of move on."

Sikeston (12-8, 4-3) jumped out to a 9-2 advantage in the opening minutes of the game, but Central (18-6, 3-3) closed the first quarter on a 13-2 run. Young scored seven points during the Tigers' run, including a 3-pointer from the left key that tied the game at 11-all with 1:51 remaining in the period. Central led 15-11 heading into the second quarter.

"We're a better team when we can get out and run in transition, and so is Sikeston," Church said. "[Sikeston coach] Gregg [Holifield] does a great job of teaching them space and how to get out in transition and throw it deep, so it's kind of a hard deal where you want to try to limit transitions and get transitions of your own."

Earnest Fobbs scored on a fastbreak layup to tie the game at 15-15 with 6:35 remaining in the first half, but Kway'Chon Chisom knocked down a trey to give the Tigers an 18-15 lead with 5:37 left in the half. Chisom finished with 12 points and was 5 of 8 (63 percent) from the floor.

Cape Central's Kway'chon Chisom drives to the basket against Sikeston on Friday night at the Sikeston Field House. (David Jenkins photo)

"When you've got not two guys but three, four or five guys contributing, it makes everything kind of go a little bit smoother, and I thought [Chisom] and Nikylus [Thompson] and Peyton [Montgomery] really stepped up and played well," Church said.

The Bulldogs took a two-point lead with 1:05 left in the first half, but a layup from Chase Hagerty and a fastbreak layup from Chisom gave Central a 27-25 advantage at the break.

Sikeston tied the game twice in the opening minutes of the second half, but a layup from Andre Statam and a 3-pointer from Chisom extended the Tigers' lead to 34-29 with 4:31 remaining in the third period.

Central turned the ball over six times in the third quarter but was able to recover on defense. The Tigers held the Bulldogs to 10 percent shooting during the period.

Fred Thatch entered the game averaging a team-high 18.7 points per game for the Bulldogs but was limited to only 13 points. The 6-foot-2 freshman shot 22 percent from the floor and was a point of emphasis for Central's defense.

"I thought Chase Hagerty did a wonderful job on Fred," Church said. "Fred got some points, but Chase made everything tough. Every shot was tough. Every catch was tough. Every cut was tough. Chase was really a warrior tonight, and I think everybody else played around him. ... We just had some guys really step up, and I just thought it was a really good team effort."

Thatch scored 18 points in the meeting between the two teams earlier this season, when Central edged Sikeston 62-59 in a consolation semifinal of the SEMO Conference tournament. Hagerty said the Tigers learned a great deal about Thatch from that game.

"We knew if we stopped him, that would throw off the whole key to their offense," Hagerty said. "Coach Church came to me. I kind of play my game not as a scorer but as a role player, and I knew if I could give my all to face-guarding him and trying to keep him limited as much as possible that maybe we could limit their offense."

Cape Central's Andre Statam shoots over Sikeston's Corbyn Blissett on Friday night at the Sikeston Field House. (David Jenkins photo)

Statam scored half of his 16 points in the third quarter. The 6-foot-6 senior finished 6 of 12 (50 percent) from the field and was a perfect 4 of 4 from the free-throw line.

"I thought Andre was tough. He rebounds really well for us," Church said. "I thought he passed up some shots tonight, but he was unselfish. I thought five guys were unselfish tonight. I thought they made the extra pass and took better shots than they normally do."

Central quickly extended its lead on the first possession of the final period, when Statam hauled in an offensive rebound and was fouled on the putback. Statam was hurt on the play and left the game as Montgomery converted the three-point play to give the Tigers a 41-33 advantage with 7:46 left in the game.

Statam later returned and knocked down a jumper to give Central a 48-36 lead, its largest of the game, with 6:04 remaining, but Sikeston responded with an 11-4 spurt that was capped by a tip-in from Donnell Cobb, cutting the Tigers' lead to 52-47 with 3:27 to go in the game.

Following a Sikeston timeout, Young converted a three-point play, and a Sikeston turnover led to a fastbreak layup from Chisom, giving Central a comfortable 57-47 advantage with less than three minutes remaining in the game.

"I thought we did a good job in the half-court [offense] of moving the ball and kind of getting it to the right spots, especially in the second half," Church said.

Thatch had 13 points and eight rebounds to lead the Bulldogs. Cobb added 11 points, and Juwon Kimble contributed 10 points for Sikeston. The Bulldogs shot 20 of 64 (31 percent) from the field, including 1 of 13 (8 percent) from behind the arc.

"We just did a poor job of moving the basketball. We were standing. We got out of rhythm, but you have to give them a lot of credit. They did a good job of positioning and staying in," Holifield said. "We just didn't play that well, but they had a lot to do with it."

The Tigers finished 23 of 49 (47 percent) from the floor and 12 of 17 (71 percent) from the charity stripe.

"With this particular team, we take it one game at a time," said Church, whose team now has two road wins over Sikeston this season. "You don't look ahead at all, and you don't look behind at all with this group. And that's the way we choose to move on because they'll hang their heads or they'll get excited. So we try not to get too excited or too low, and that seems to work for us."

Central 15 12 11 23 -- 61

Sikeston 11 14 8 17 -- 50

CENTRAL (61) -- Al Young 22, Andre Statam 16, Kway'Chon Chisom 12, Chase Hagerty 4, Peyton Montgomery 3, Nikylus Thompson 2, Austin Parker 2. FG 23-49, FT 12-17, F 14. (3-pointers: Chisom 2, Young 1. Fouled out: None.)

SIKESTON (50) -- Fred Thatch 13, Donnell Cobb 11, Juwon Kimble 10, Corbyn Blissett 6, Earnest Fobbs 4, Luke Williams 4, Dominique Dyes 2. FG 20-64, FT 9-15, F 19. (3-pointers: Cobb 1. Fouled out: None.)

JV -- Central won 59-43