Defending state champs roll in opener

There's something about a college basketball floor that brings out the best in Bell City.

The Cubs closed last season with two victories on the floor of the Hearnes Center at the University of Missouri. The wins capped a 29-5 season with the Class 1 state championship.

Bell City returned to a college floor for the first time Thursday night at the Show Me Center on the campus of Southeast Missouri State University and showed it hadn't lost a thing.

Making its debut in the 58th annual seMissourian Christmas Tournament, sixth-seeded Bell City proved too much for 11th-seeded Woodland with a statement-making 103-54 victory.

On a day ruled by higher seeds, Bell City (7-1) posted one of several lopsided wins.

In other first-round games, top-seeded Charleston handled No. 16 Chaffee 86-44; No. 2 Notre Dame rolled past No. 15 Oak Ridge 87-24; No. 3 Jackson defeated No. 14 Delta 63-42; No. 4 Cape Girardeau Central thumped No. 13 Leopold 63-26; No. 5 Oran slipped past No. 12 Scott County Central 64-59; and No. 7 Scott City remained unbeaten with a 74-61 win over No. 10 Meadow Heights.

In the day's only upset, No. 9 Kelly defeated No. 8 Advance 68-60.

With just 89 students, Bell City is the third smallest school in the tournament, but doesn't carry itself that way.

"They're playing to win," Bell City coach David Heeb said. "That's one thing about these kids -- they're winners. If they come out of here with anything less than first, they won't be satisfied.

"That's not disrespecting Charleston or anybody else. These kids want to win. They think they can play with everybody. It'll take a good game to beat Jackson and it'll take a good game to get through the semifinals and to beat Charleston. But I think if we play good, we can play with these guys."

Bell City will face Jackson in a 7:30 p.m. game tonight. Jackson, with an enrollment of 1,554, is the largest school in the field.

"I don't think our kids get up for this tournament any more than they do than just for a regular game, other than the fact they want to prove themselves against the bigger schools, which we've got a chance to do now," Heeb said.

The final score didn't reflect a tight first half that took its toll on Woodland's manpower.

The Cardinals came into the game shorthanded with just nine players available after losing its top two players off the bench to an illness and a discipline suspension.

Foul troubles decimated Woodland (3-5) further with the first half ending with three Cardinal starters on the bench in foul trouble. Woodland was ultimately left with the bare minimum as four players fouled out.

"If you don't have guys coming off the bench they wear you down real good," Woodland coach Ted Hahn said. "We were dead tired at the last, and I think we're in pretty good shape."

Woodland actually held a 35-34 lead when sophomore forward Cody McGraw hit a difficult fastbreak layin and was fouled for a three-point play with 3:19 left in the half.

The situation quickly deteriorated for the Cardinals. McGraw, who had 13 first-half points and a team-high 17 for the game, picked up his fourth foul just moments later. He headed to the bench, where he joined senior center Luke Johnson, who picked up his third foul earlier in the period.

"I don't know how that one got by me," Hahn said. "That one shouldn't of gotten by, but it did."

Bell City all-state forward Eric Henry, who had a game-high 31 points, tied the game at 35-35 with a free throw on McGraw's foul.

Woodland's final six possessions of the half ended in turnovers with Bell City scoring off each. The 16-0 run was reminiscent of ones utilized in last year's state drive.

"They can score points in bunches, especially off their defense," Heeb said. "When they play good defense, their transition to offense is so quick. And we've got a lot of guys that can put it in the hole. And tonight that's what you saw."

Ty Brown capped the flurry with a 3-point basket at the buzzer for a 50-35 halftime lead.

Bell City used a 24-0 run at Woodland in the third quarter, hitting 3-pointers on three consecutive trips down the floor at one point. The Cubs finished with 12 3-pointers with Kenyan Wright leading the way with five.

"The second half we picked up the intensity on defense," Heeb said. "We're going to score a lot of points. If we hold you to a few points, the score could look that way in a hurry."

Wright finished with 20 points while all-state junior point guard Dominitrix Johnson and junior Randy Conn each finished with 15. Nine Cubs scored in all.

Are the Cubs better than the team that won state last year?

"We're trying to get there," Henry said. "We're not quite there yet."

"I think in a lot of ways we're ahead of where we were last year," Heeb said. "I don't know that we'll improve as much as we did last year."

Travis Benfield added 16 points for Woodland while Alex VanGennip finished with 10.

jbreer@semissourian.com

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