Christmas Tournament: Braves breeze to title

It was close until the second quarter.

That's when Drew Thomas took over and No. 1 Scott County Central began to pull away from No. 2 Notre Dame in the title game of the Southeast Missourian Christmas Tournament.

"I've played varsity for four years now," Thomas said. "All those miles I've done and all the wind sprints I've done paid off tonight."

If the tournament awarded an MVP, it would have go to Thomas, who had an impressive week capped off by maybe his strongest performance when it counted the most.

He scored 14 points in the second quarter alone to help his team build a double-digit halftime lead against Notre Dame after entering the second period ahead by three points.

From there, Scott County never let Notre Dame come within fewer than 10 points, as the Braves rolled to an 80-62 win in front of an energized Show Me Center crowd Tuesday.

It was Scott County's first Southeast Missourian Christmas Tournament title since 1990 and its fifth in school history.

Notre Dame senior Austin Greer certainly was impressed by Thomas and the Braves, who he practically said are a lock to win the Class 1 state title.

"I will say that they definitely get there [to the state championship game]," Greer said. "I think they have a great chance to win it. If they don't, something is wrong."

The Braves (10-1) were just too quick for Notre Dame (7-5) on Tuesday.

"It's a lot of fun [to play them]," Greer said. "They are super fast and athletic. The lanes close so quick, it's hard to throw passes. They close the lanes off quick."

Thomas netted 33 points in the contest. He averaged 30.5 points in the tournament. He had 122 points in the tourney, which was 46 points more than the second-leading scorer, Greer, who had 76. Greer led the Bulldogs with 27 points Tuesday.

"There's no words to explain how happy I am right now," Thomas said. "For us to win it, and it took us a long time to win it, it's just an honor. We knew from the get go that we were going to play hard. We're going to continue to play hard. That's my main focus. I'm the leader of the team."

"SCC, SCC, SCC," the small, but vocal Scott County student section chanted at the much bigger Notre Dame student section on the opposite end of the court.

The Scott County students — which even mixed in an "It's all over" chant during the first half — were dressed in school orange and black colors and filed out of their section at the beginning of the fourth quarter to walk over closer to the Bulldogs section to chant "SCC."

"[Cape] Central's fans were rooting for Scott County Central," Greer said. "I mean, you don't see things like that every day. It was a lot of fun."

Braves guard Bobby Hatchett said about the Braves student section: "It was funny. We started laughing. We just look at it and we know we've already got a crowd. We just play with it. If they help, they help."

The first quarter was close. Although Scott County led for most of it, Notre Dame's Alex Bader hit two 3-pointers in the final 56 seconds to tie the score 13-13.

But Scott County's Randy Timmons netted a 3-pointer at the buzzer to put the Braves ahead 16-13 entering the second quarter.

It was the first time in the tournament any team was able to stick with Scott County for the first quarter. Hatchett said the inability to jump out quickly is not a reflection on his team playing poorly or nervously in the first quarter.

"They are just a good team," Hatchett said about Notre Dame. "We just had to get our flow going. It wasn't really nothing. After a while, we knew it would start kicking in."

It did start to kick in for the Braves in the second quarter. Scott County — which outscored its four tournament opponents a combined 336-178 — went on an impressive 14-2 run over the first 4 minutes, 45 seconds of the second quarter to take a 30-15 lead.

During the stretch, Thomas had nine straight points, including a powerful dunk in front of the Notre Dame student section. When he landed on his feet, he stared at the Bulldogs section and expressed his excitement.

"I just had a moment by myself," Thomas said. "I wasn't trying to do nothing to them. I was just pumped up to myself. The comments I had were to myself."

Greer said both Thomas and Hatchett sparked the Braves' rally in the second quarter.

"He's definitely one of the better players I've played against," Greer said about Thomas. "And I was really impressed with Bobby Hatchett. He breaks down presses by himself. He breaks down the lanes by himself. He gets those guys open shots every time. He can spoon-feed a lot of them. He's so quick and so athletic. And Drew Thomas can definitely shoot it. That's for sure."

Notre Dame rallied to bring the score to within 10 points at 70-60 with 2:46 remaining.

But Scott County followed that with a 10-2 run to close out the game. Hatchett had a big dunk in the final minute to put an exclamation point on the contest.

Hatchett's father played on the 1990 team. It was his father's junior year, and he was a starting guard, too.

"It's real big," Hatchett said about winning the tournament. "Every time we win this tournament, we win the state tournament. So everybody has been stressing it to us. That's all we've been hearing lately the past couple weeks — that we had to bring it."

Scott County now turns its attention to the rest of the season. Thomas said coach Ronnie Cookson was pleased with the victory, but reminded his boys they need to continue to work hard.

"We're just going to go out there and play hard," Thomas said. "I don't care who we're playing. If we're playing the L.A. Lakers, we're going to continue to work hard. Coach has got it in our minds to work hard."

Notre Dame13151618—62

Scott County16242317—80

Notre Dame (62) — Nick Koeppel 4, Keke Kellum 3, Alex Bader 12, John Unterreiner 7, Austin Greer 27, Tanner Hiett 4, Jacob Tolbert 2, Joseph Tolbert 3. FG 24, FT 6-7, F 23. (3-pointers: Bader 4. Fouled out: Koeppel, Jo. Tolbert)

Scott County Central (80) — Bobby Hatchett 17, Desmin Williams 8, Drew Thomas 33, Randy Timmons 15, Otto Porter 7. FG 29, FT 17-28, F 10. (3-pointers: Thomas 4, R. Timmons 1. Fouled out: None)