CENTRAL STAYS HEALTHY, REACHES SEMIS

Holding an early lead, Perryville may have thought Cape Central's girls were going to give them an early Christmas present in the opening round of the HealthSouth Holiday Classic, but the Lady Tigers weren't in a giving mood and went on to a 58-35 victory Monday night.

Third-seeded Cape Central improved to 7-1 with the victory and advances to today's semifinals against second-seeded Jackson at 8 p.m. Sixth-seeded Perryville, which fell to 2-4, will meet seventh-seeded Scott County Central at 5 in a consolation semifinal.

The Lady Tigers, who applied a full-court press in the second quarter, didn't allow a Perryville field goal for an 11-minute period that spanned from the first quarter all the way into the third.

"I told my girls to pick up their defense," said Cape Central coach Darrick Smith. "We started out too passive and let them get to all the loose balls. We just needed to get in their face a little bit."

Perryville led 13-8 late in the first quarter and took a 13-11 lead into the second quarter.

With the score tied 15-15, Cape Central sophomore Sarah Hyslop was fouled while making a field goal and converted the three-point play to give the Lady Tigers an 18-15 lead. Central never relinquished the lead.

Perryville turned the ball over 12 times alone in the second quarter and finished with 29 for the game. Cape Central took advantage of the second-quarter give-aways by going on a 20-4 scoring run en route to a 32-17 halftime lead.

Cape Central continued to take it to the Lady Pirates in the third quarter, holding Perryville to 10 points as the Lady Tigers tallied 15, with the quarter ending in a 47 -27 lead for Cape Central.

Dionna Webb scored 19 points to lead Cape Central while Hyslop and Mindy Hoffman both scored 12.

"I'm not going to make any excuses for the loss," said Perryville coach Vicki Lohmann, "but we played last night against St. Joseph's and I think the girls were a little tired tonight. Cape Central was playing really well defensively and Dionna Webb played great."

Webb was nearly unstoppable when she posted up down low near the basket.

"She was quicker than we were," said Lohmann. "We had no weak-side help to slow her down near the basket. We also committed way too many turnovers to compete with them."

A bright spot for Perryville was the play of Jamie Amberger, who popped for a team-high 17 points.

"Amberger came off an 18-point game last night," said Lohmann, "and she had another great game tonight."