COLUMN: The Festivus finals of the Southeast Missourian Christmas Tournament

There's a theme connecting the Southeast Missourian Christmas Tournament championship game, as well as the third-place and fifth-place games.

Revenge.

That's right, we're passed the part of passing the Christmas gifts. The stockings have been stuffed in the form of dunks. Saturday at the Show Me Center will be reserved for the Festivus airing of grievances.

Payback is the aim for Jackson, Notre Dame, and Scott City, who will look to avenge past losses and collect plaques.

Scott City and Kelly will meet in the fifth-place game on Saturday, with the Hawks having won six straight matchups, including a 72-60 home game that was not as close as the score suggests.

"It was a really intense game," Kelly senior Michael Dollins said. "I'm expecting that on Saturday. It's gonna be fun."

In the third-place game, Notre Dame will face Charleston for the third time this season. The Bulldogs lost to the Blue Jays 66-52 at home on Dec. 1 and again on Dec. 6 by a score of 71-55.

Freshman center Hudson Dennis could be the difference in Round 3 between these SEMO Conference rivals. He started the season getting baskets in garbage time in the SEMO Conference Tournament to scoring 10 points as a starter in back-to-back Christmas Tournament games.

"He's learning what it takes to be a physical center in the Southeast Missouri area," Notre Dame head coach Jeremy Brinkmeyer said.

Jackson and Cape Central will clash for the tournament championship for the second straight season. Cape Central won by six points, and both teams have graduated their fair share of seniors, but that doesn't mean the Indians forgot.

"Payback's the thing for our seniors from last year," Jackson junior forward Kole Deck said. "They want us to beat them so we'll go out and give our best."

Deck can potentially be the difference for Jackson. In his first Christmas tournament as a full-time varsity player, the junior is averaging 24 points per game through the first three rounds.

As usual, Cape Central has dominated their way to the championship game, a place where they have been in three of the last four years. Unlike most heavy favorites, there is a strong desire to see the Tigers dominate their overmatched opposition and that is because of the spectacular dunks they perform, which does not happen often in high school basketball.

An underrated cause behind the dunks is the defense that creates the transition that swiftly sets up the show-stopping slams.

"When we play defense hard, you get wide-open dunks," said Cape Central sophomore Marquell Murray, who has been the star of the tournament because of his dunks. "You get to do whatever you want with it, but if you don't play defense, you're not going to win the game."

“Good defense and us being unselfish,” Cape Central forward TySeanDre' Edwards said. “That’s how everybody gets dunks, through fastbreaks.”

__Payback against the past__

The consolation final features a matchup that nobody expected. No. 13 seed Scott County Central and No. 15 seed Bell City will face off to start the final slate of games at 3 p.m. on Saturday.

These are two teams that once had their run as flagship programs but have been some of the worst programs in Southeast Missouri in recent years. Scott County Central went from winning six state championships from 2009-15 to winning 10 games only once since 2020. The Braves are 6-4 and have a chance for their first winning season since 2018, their last district title season.

“These last couple of years we’ve been working hard but haven’t been able to get over the hump,” Braves senior Asher Britt said. “This year to finally get over the hump has been really great.”

Bell City also feels like a team that is turning the corner. The Cubs won two state championships in 2002 and 2004 but have had one winning season (2014) since 2010. They were 0-6 entering the Christmas Tournament but won against Leopold and Advance to earn their spot in the consolation championship for the first time since 2014.

“We already played Leopold and Advance this year. (Leopold) beat us by one and we went to overtime with Advance. We were right there," Bell City sophomore Kale Richardson said. “We finally found in this tournament to get over the hill and get that extra push to get that one more play in,” Richardson said.

__Soaring in the Show Me Center__

One of the most enjoyable aspects of the Southeast Missourian Christmas Tournament is seeing it all played out in the Show Me Center.

The tournament is basically a week-long community gathering under the home of the Southeast Missouri State Redhawks, and nobody enjoys that more than the participating players.

"It feels like you're living out your dream," Dollins said. "As soon as you're running out the tunnel, everybody cheering, hitting the hardwood, it feels good."

For many of the teams, this is by far the biggest court and arena these players will ever get to play on. While exciting, it does come with some adjustments.

"This court is a lot bigger than any high school," Oak Ridge senior Konnor Hobeck said. We have more room, we got different backgrounds when we shoot, so we got to adjust our eyes and calculate how big the floor is and go from there."

While is a dream come true for many of the players, it's a preview for the future of Cape Central senior Jay Reynolds, who signed with SEMO before the start of the season.

"It's definitely surreal seeing the crowd in the Show Me Center like that," Reynolds said. "I kind of imagine myself in that Redhawks jersey playing that next year."

These next four games are expected to showcase how great of an environment the Show Me Center can be with a full crowd.