Christmas Tournament: Jackson routs SCC 72-45 in semifinals

Much has been made about Jackson's size and strength, especially on the interior.

On Saturday night in the semifinals of the Southeast Missourian Christmas Tournament the Indians' guards showed they are just as critical to the success.

Jackson's guards handled everything Scott County Central threw at them, and the Indians breezed to a 72-45 victory.

"Regardless that us bigs have been scoring a lot, I'd say the guards are the MVPs," Jackson forward Karson King said. "They're getting it to us, they're getting it up the court. They're doing their job really well right now and we're just benefiting."

The Indians (8-0) didn't just do well on the offensive end. They also hounded the Braves (7-2) on defense and forced them into a horrendous shooting night.

"They have size, but they also have very good skilled, aggressive guards," SCC coach Frank Staple said. "The thing about us is we hope to compete a little bit better, but I think we never gave up. No shame losing to a team like that."

Jackson's post players got their points with Blake Reynolds, King, and Brandon Lueders putting up 16, 13 and 10, respectively.

But Josh Daume, Calvin Lysell, Braden Wendel and Josh Friess did more than their fair share.

Scott County Central sophomore Jeffery Porter drives past Jackson senior Karson King during a semifinal of the Southeast Missourian Christmas Tournament on Saturday at the Show Me Center. (Adam Vogler)

Daume and Wendel reached double figures with 11 and 10 respectively, but the quartet stifled the Braves.

"I thought we did a good job keeping them out of the paint," Jackson coach Darrin Scott said. "Because penetration would have bothered us because if they penetrate then you have to rotate and it makes it easier for them to get offensive rebound."

The Indians held the Braves to just 7-of-32 shooting (22 percent) in the opening half.

Jackson established Reynolds inside early and took a quick 13-3 lead three minutes into the game.

Reynolds scored 12 of his 16 points in the opening half.

"I have to give credit to my guards for getting the ball to me," Reynolds said. "They did a good job to find me early. I got one early in the post I think along the baseline and they really built my confidence, and I felt like I could establish myself down there."

The Indians continued to cruise from there, taking a 19-7 lead on a King 3-pointer. The Braves would never get pull back within single digits again.

"At any level you have to have good guard play," Scott said. "It doesn't matter how good your bigs are, if you can't get them the ball, it's worthless. Our guards have played really well. Having Lysell back from injury from last year and having Daume and then on top of that our other guards, Wendel and Friess have improved, so our guard play has been so much better. That's the key to the way we're playing right now is our guard play."

The Braves' patented pressure defense wreaked little havoc on Jackson with its guards consistently using their size, strength and speed to get into the lane and either score or dish to the post players.

"They've got really good, strong guards," Staple said. "We really wanted to get up and pressure them and they did a good job getting around us."

Meanwhile the Indians limited two of the Braves premier players, Larandis Banks and Jeffery Porter, to just eight and six points, respectively.

Jackson continued to stretch its lead in the second, limiting the Braves to eight points on 4-of-20 shooting in the quarter and taking a 39-19 lead at the half.

The Indians appeared to be well on their way to a running clock when they opened the second half on a 5-0 spurt to make it 44-19, but the Braves dug in.

SCC battled back in the quarter and cut it to a 21-point game with 5:30 remaining.

"Coming into halftime we told them the score was 0-0," Staple said. "We're Scott Central. We're going to come out to fight. At the end of the day you're not going to see any schools in Class 1 the size of Jackson. Our goal coming into this tournament was to play four days and we've accomplished that goal. We still have a tough one coming up Monday against Cape or Charleston."

The Braves will face Charleston Monday night at 6 p.m. in the third-place game.

Jackson will square off with Central at 7:30 p.m. for the title.

The Indians last played in the title game in 2007 when they beat Notre Dame for the championship.

SCC 11 8 13 13 -- 45

Jackson 23 16 15 18 -- 72

SCOTT COUNTY (45) -- Drake Kesler 1, Juwan Owens 9, Trevion Moore 3, Larandis Banks 8, Jeffery Porter 6, Blain Johnson 1, Kendall Blissett 7, Javonta Daniel 6, Matthew Blissett 4. FG 15, FT 6-10, F 12. (3-pointers: Owens, Moore, Banks. Fouled out: none)

JACKSON (72) -- Josh Daume 11, Braden Wendel 10, Garrett Walker 2, Calvin Lysell 8, Karson King 13, Connor Shepard 2, Blake Reynolds 16, Brandon Lueders 10. FG 21, FT 9-11, F 10. (3-pointers: King 3, Daume 3, Wendel 1. Fouled out: none)