Christmas Tournament: Central duo leads Tigers to big win over Oran

Central's Andre Statam and Jamal Cox combine to create one of the most impressive 1-2 inside punches in the area.

If Al Young and the rest of the Tigers' guards play like they did against Oran on Friday night – Central may be just fine after a rocky start to the season.

The Tigers routed the Eagles 70-42 in a quarterfinal of the Southeast Missourian Christmas Tournament.

"They're just a good combo," Oran coach Joe Shoemaker said of Statam and Cox. "They hurt us. I knew that was something we would probably struggle with tonight, and we did. They're well coached, and they're good ball players. Both those kids played well tonight."

Indeed they did.

Statam poured in a game-high 23 points, 13 coming in the opening quarter.

Cox pitched in with 20.

Cox, a senior, doesn't mind sharing the spotlight with his junior running mate.

"It's pretty good," Cox said. "I have somebody to relieve pressure from me. He can post up, dribble like a guard and everything else."

The two premier players may be even better if Young and the rest of the inexperienced Tiger guards continue to grow.

Young poured in 13 points, while five other players added points for the Tigers.

Young, a standout wide receiver for the Tigers' football team, was especially impressive against Oran.

The sophomore guard connected on a 3-pointer as well as several strong drives to the basket.

"He has to attack the basket," Central coach Drew Church said. "He did some good things. He has a nose for the ball. I thought the first half, maybe towards the end, he made some decisions that weren't the best, but that's how he has to learn. If he doesn't make those decisions by playing hard he's not going to learn. He's going to help us just by being aggressive and taking away some of the pressure from our bigs."

Central took advantage of its size early and often.

Oran led 5-4 early in the first before Statam and the Tigers took over.

The forward sparked an 8-0 run, pouring in six himself, to stake Central to a 12-5 lead.

"I just knew I was bigger," Statam said. "I just took it to the hole. I knew I needed to attack instead of being a guard and shooting, and that's what coach told me before the game."

The Eagles cut it to 12-8 before the Tigers closed the quarter on a 7-3 run to take a 19-11 advantage into the second quarter.

Central attempted to pull away in the second, but the pesky Eagles failed to fall completely out of it.

The Tigers took a 30-17 lead with just under three minutes left in the half on a 3-pointer by Young, but Oran closed the half on an 8-3 run to make the Central lead just 33-25 at the half.

The Eagles' Seth Ressel netted 11 of his 13 points in the second quarter, including connecting on two 3-pointers.

"Shoemaker does a heck of a job," Church said. "They're a good team. They have three really good players and they compliment each other well. We knew it was going to be a tough game. It was good to get a lead early, but they hung around and they made it difficult for us to go inside at first because they kind of packed it in, but I thought we responded better the second half and did some things we wanted to do."

Central used its defensive pressure to turn the tables in a big way in the third.

The Tigers were active on the defensive end and the Eagles failed to respond, throwing away numerous passes that led to easy Central buckets in transition.

"We kind of hung around in the first half," Shoemaker said. "We still had some turnovers, but turnovers really got us and they got out in transition, hit some easy buckets and kind of opened up the lead in the third quarter -- bad quarter for us."

Central opened the quarter on a 5-0 run to take a 38-25 lead and the Eagles never got closer than 13 after that.

The Tigers stretched that lead to 59-33 by the end of the quarter, outscoring Oran 26-8 in the quarter.

"I think we kind of figured out what they were doing offensively," Church said. "They were cutting a lot and spreading the floor. We talked at halftime you have to get a hand up on shots and eliminate penetration, and I thought second half we did a better job doing that."

Chance Tenkhoff led Oran with 15 points.

Central advanced to a semifinal game against No. 2 Charleston at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at the Show Me Center.

Oran moved on to a fifth-place semifinal against seventh-seeded Chaffee at 4:30 p.m. Saturday.

Oran 11 14 8 9 -- 42

Cape Central 19 14 26 11 -- 70

ORAN (42) -- Chance Tenkhoff 15, Seth Ressel 13, Hunter Schlosser 4, Jacob Priggel 3, Cash Kinney 2, Thomas Trankler 5. FG 9, FT 6-7, F 18. (3-pointers: Tenkhoff 2, Ressel 3, Priggel 1. Fouled out: none)

CAPE CENTRAL (70) -- Al Young 13, Jamal Cox 20, Jalen Reddin 1, Andre Statam 23, Mikey Jones 4, Chase Haggerty 4, Nikylus Thompson 2, Dusty Tolbert 3. FG 25, FT 11-23, F 14. (3-pointers: Yong 1, Statam 1, Tolbert 1. Fouled out: none)