FESTUS NIPS TIGERS FOR PERRYVILLE TITLE

PERRYVILLE -- Festus High's boys basketball team kept its undefeated record intact Saturday night by edging Cape Central 63-60 in the championship game of the Perryville Tournament.

Festus, now 11-0 on the season, was the No. 2 seed. Cape Central came in as the top seed.

Also Saturday night, third-seeded Sikeston captured third place with an equally exciting 80-75 victory over fourth-seeded Jackson and Perryville claimed the consolation title in another close game, slipping past Notre Dame 67-64.

"We had a super tournament and it was a great final night," said Perryville coach Chris Kusnerick, the tourney director. "The last three games all pretty much went down to the wire."

Festus 63, Cape Central 60

Central, which saw its record fall to 12-3, was playing its fourth game in as many nights. The Tigers had won the previous three.

"It was a hard week for us and maybe it got to us a little bit tonight," said Central coach Dick Wadlington. "But it was a good game. Festus has an outstanding ballclub."

Central fell behind by nine points in the fourth quarter before storming back to within a point in the closing seconds. However, David Lucas hit two free throws for the final margin of victory.

"We missed eight free throws in the last quarter and six in a row at one point when we made our run," Wadlington said. "It's really hard to believe we could make a run missing all those free throws but we had a chance to win the game all the way."

Matt Wittmer, a member of the all-tournament team, paced Central with 21 points.

"Matt had another good game," said Wadlington.

Lucas, the tourney's MVP, paced Festus with 16 points. Roger James and Jim Jones added 12 apiece. Jason Smith of Festus also earned all-tourney honors.

"Even though we lost, our kids had a good week," said Wadlington. "We just fell a little short tonight."

Sikeston 80, Jackson 75

Jackson, after losing a close game to Central in the semifinals, suffered another narrow defeat Saturday.

The game was tied with one minute to play and Jackson had the ball. But the Indians committed a turnover and Sikeston went on to pull away.

"We played hard and we had a chance to win the game," said Jackson coach Steve Burk. "Sikeston's quickness was really tough on us and we just couldn't stop Tiger Boyd."

Boyd, a member of the all-tournament team, led the 9-4 Bulldogs with 27 points. Shawn Ruffin, also an all-tourney choice, scored 22 while Carlos Ivy added 14.

Jackson, which fell to 9-6, got 16 points from Craig Clippard, 15 from both Kevin Hope and Mark Kiehne, 13 from Paul Laurentius and 10 from Kory Thoma.

Laurentius earned all-tourney honors for the Indians.

Perryville 67, Notre Dame 64

The Pirates raised their record to 8-5 while the Bulldogs fell to 6-9.

Steve Eggemeyer, a member of the all-tournament team, paced Perryville with 18 points. Chris Wibbenmeyer had 16 and Jason Rodewald 13.

Notre Dame was led by 22 points from Jeff Maurer, who hit four three-point shots. Jeff Essner added 17 and Heath Irlbeck had 12.

"We played real well," said Kusnerick. "We're starting to get back to the type of ball we were playing earlier in the season."

The Pirates were ahead 22-21 after one quarter and 36-29 at halftime.