Charleston boys basketball team ends Scott City's season in district semifinal

Scott City junior Trent Pobst was brief with his description of what he and his teammates needed to focus on entering a Class 3 District 2 matchup with the Charleston boys basketball team.

"Stop Delfincko," Pobst said.

But stopping Charleston's senior standout Delfincko Bogan is something few teams have been able to do, and the Jacksonville State commit scored a game-high 25 points against the Rams.

"If we let him score, we can't let the other guys score," Pobst continued. "But the other guys scored, too."

One of the most problematic of those "other guys" was Charleston freshman Demarcus Sharp, who finished with 16 points, in the Bluejays' 78-46 victory at Scott City High School on Thursday night.

Sharp made his first 3-pointer 30 seconds into the game and made another about a minute later to help Charleston build an 8-0 lead.

"He doesn't play like a freshman," veteran Charleston coach Danny Farmer said about Sharp. "He doesn't get excited and all that. He plays every game the same, and that's unusual for a freshman."

Farmer said he was concerned about two things entering the game. The first whether or not his team would learn from a subpar first half in its district opener.

"Going in I was concerned about being focused after the slow start against Clearwater and wanted to take care of business at the beginning of the game, which is what we did to get the big lead in the beginning of the game," Farmer said. "At this point in the season, the most important thing is your approach to every game. If we lose, it's over. We have to keep that on our mind all the time."

His players listened, extending a 19-12 lead at the end of the first quarter to a 44-26 lead at halftime.

Farmer's other concern was the health of Bogan, who has been ill throughout the week. The senior didn't score until 5 minutes, 21 seconds remained in the second quarter, but he still poured in 14 points before the break, when Farmer told him he needed to focus on his offense more.

"I told him at halftime to be more aggressive on offense," Farmer said. "I wanted him to be more aggressive on offense. He's too unselfish at times."

Bogan added 11 more points in the third quarter, capped by a tough, conventional three-point play with 3.5 seconds left in the frame.

The Bluejays (14-10), who will face Woodland in tonight's 7:30 p.m. championship game, forced a running clock for most of the fourth quarter.

"You're either going to give up layups against them [or 3s]," said Scott City coach Mark Dannenmueller, whose team surrendered 10 3-pointers. "We tried to give help, we tried to switch ball screens, handoffs and hope that we could put a hand up and make them shoot contested shots. They had open shots, and they hit them. They're just really good."

The Rams missed their first five shots from the field and trailed the entire night.

"I didn't think we played well, and they had something to do with that, obviously, but I didn't think that we played with enough confidence early on," Dannenmueller said. "Against a team like that you can't do that."

Dannenmueller said he was happy with his team's offense, but the Rams didn't covert enough of their opportunities.

"I thought we got anything we wanted against them, and we knew we were going to," he said. "The big thing with them is we knew they didn't want to play defense very long. They wanted to get out, and they wanted to go. We got any shot we wanted in the paint. We just couldn't finish. Against a team like that, you've got to make those shots."

Sophomore Dylan Keller led the Rams with 13 points, while Pobst added 11.

Scott City finished the season 18-8. The Rams will lose four players to graduation but return four starters next season.

"We lose four seniors that were extremely important to our program," Dannenmueller said. "Every day they came in and set a good example for the underclassmen on how to practice. Great attitudes -- every single one of those kids are great kids, so we lose those four guys who are extremely important to our team.

"The other guys -- hopefully they use this as motivation. I don't know. It's a funny thing. This is going to go one of two ways -- you're either going to use this as motivation or you're going have more doubt in your mind, but we've got good kids who are pretty tough-minded, so I think they'll respond well."

Scott City 12 12 15 7 -- 46

Charleston 19 25 24 10 -- 78

SCOTT CITY (46) -- Dylan Keller 13, Trent Pobst 11, Isiah Berry 4, Jordan Kluesner 1, Brock Uelsmann 7, Braden Cox 8, Tyler Rogers 2. FG 16, FT 13-24, F 12. (3-pointers: Keller 1. Fouled out: none.)

CHARLESTON (78) -- Dontarius Sharp 19, Delfincko Bogan 25, Demarcus Sharp 16, Mardareyon Clark 5, Tenerrious Ewing 2, Marquavion McCauley 4, Ke'Sean Griffin 5, Darren Howard 2. FG 32, FT 4-7, F 20. (3-pointers: Do. Sharp 5, Bogan 1, De. Sharp 4. Fouled out: none.)