East Prairie, Kelly, Oran and Oak Ridge advance to the Scott-Mississippi semifinals

OAK RIDGE, Mo. — The semifinals for the Scott-Mississippi Conference Tournament are set after the quarterfinals were played at Oak Ridge High School on Saturday, Jan. 29.

Top-seeded Oak Ridge will take on fourth-seeded Kelly at 6:30 p.m. and second-seeded East Prairie will face third-seed Oran at 7:45 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 1.

East Prairie (15-5) defeated seventh-seeded Delta (4-13) with a score of 61-40 in the opening round. The teams also met on Thursday, Jan. 26, with the Eagles coming away victorious 100-41.

“It was definitely challenging to play them back-to-back nights,” said East Prairie coach Gary Scott. “We beat them pretty good the first night and then played uninspired on Saturday. It was very frustrating for sure. Delta played very hard and gave us all we wanted for three quarters. Luckily, we escaped with a victory and get to move on to the semis.”

Kelly (10-10) defeated fifth-seeded Scott City (5-14) with a score of 61-44.

“We settle in and allowed the game to come to us,” said Kelly coach Jeremy Brinkmeyer. “We were forcing the issue to score too much at the beginning and taking bad shots. When we settled down and worked the ball inside we began to make better decisions offensively and stopped turning it over.”

Oran (12-8) defeated sixth-seeded Chaffee (7-12) and Oak Ridge (15-3) advanced with a win over eighth-seeded Scott County Central (1-10).

__EAST PRAIRIE 61, DELTA 40__

Delta 7 14 11 8 — 40

E. Prairie 17 5 14 25 — 61

__Delta (40) — __Carter Scherer 25, Austin Keys 8, Trevor Shroffreger 4, Casey Crowden 2, Coleton Deckard 1. FG: 13. FT: 14-22. F: 15. (3-pointers: none. Fouled out: Stroffreger.)

__East Prairie (61) —__ Wyatt Williams 23, Kamron Farmer 13, Damarion Evans 6, Rafe Byassee 6, Ty Wallace 5, Evan Kenedy 4, Connor Marcum 2, Noah Johnson 2. FG: 25. FT: 6-12. F: 21. (3-pointers: Farmer 2, Byassee 2. Fouled out: none.)

__KELLY 61, SCOTT CITY 44__

Scott City 9 12 12 11 — 44

Kelly 8 22 15 16 — 61

__Scott City (44) — __Jaylen Rulo 16, Brenden Bussing 13, Luke Emfleet 6, Jackson Gloth 4, Lane Johnston 3, Tarrin Johnson 2. FG: 13. FT: 13-16. F: 17. (3-pointers: Umfleet 2, Rulo 2, Bussing 1. Fouled out: none.)

__Kelly (61) —__ Ross Peters 17, Dalton Forck 15, Michael Dollins 8, Drew Klipfel 8, Gavin Dugan 7, Reece Eftink 6. FG: 22. FT: 13-21. F: 15. (3-pointers: Peters 3, Dollins 1. Fouled out: none.)