HAZELWOOD CENTRAL ENDS TIGERS' STREAK

The Cape Girardeau Central High boys basketball team's flurry of 3-pointers in the closing minutes of the first half looked reminiscent of some of the team's play during its nine-game winning streak.

Unfortunately for Cape Central, the second half of Saturday's game looked more like the pre-streak Tigers.

Cape Central scored just eight points in the third quarter and lost to Hazelwood Central 61-51 at the Tiger Field House.

The Tigers were outscored 42-24 in the second half

The loss was the Tigers' first in their last 10 games. Cape Central fell to 10-3 and the Hawks improved to 8-5.

Hazelwood Central's Pat Schumacher, a 6-foot-11 junior, was a dominating force inside defensively. Schumacher's control of the paint put excess stress on Cape Central's perimeter shooting.

"We didn't work together well as far as the inside-outside game goes. You're not going to be successful if you don't have at least some threat on the inside," said Cape Central coach Brett Reutzel. "When they were in their man defense we didn't do a good job of getting open. We didn't play smart and we didn't play together.

"Early we were all in favor of taking it right at him (Schumacher). Obviously after he swatted a few we might have gotten a little scared."

Hazelwood Central coach Ed Liliensiek said Schumacher played well defensively.

"Schumacher got a lot of defensive boards and he got some blocks too. The refs let him play," said Liliensiek.

Hazelwood Central had a balanced attack as five players scored in double figures. Dan Wilson, a 6-4 senior, had 17 points, Isaac Powell added 11 and Schumacher, Brad Foulk and Anthonie Sneed each finished with 10.

The lack of team play that Reutzel mentioned showed up in the scoring column for Cape Central. The Tigers' Nathan Owen led all scorers with 19 points; no other Tiger had more than seven points.

Owen started the game slowly, but then caught fire late in the second quarter. After Central trailed the entire first quarter, a 3-pointer by Owen put the Tigers within a point at 17-16 with less than three minutes left in the second period.

Owen then hit consecutive threes in the final 1:16, and Cape Central's Aron Meystedt hit the Tigers' fourth three in the final 2:39 of the second period to give Cape Central a 27-19 lead at halftime. The lead was the Tigers' largest of the game.

Hazelwood Central scored only five points in the second quarter and was just 1 of 10 from the field in the period.

"We finally got some kids in the basketball game that did a good job of moving the ball and we hit some big threes. They were able to get the ball inside and kick it back outside to get some good looks for those kids," said Reutzel.

"Nathan was a little cold at the beginning, but once he got in the flow of the game he hit some big baskets and was a big part of the run."

Said Liliensiek: "Owen has hurt us the last two years; he's a great player. He's going to have a good college career at SEMO."

The Hawks scored the first nine points of the second half to quickly regain the lead. Hazelwood Central led 37-35 entering the fourth quarter and led by as many as 15 points late in the fourth quarter.

"In the second half I went back with the individuals that got us the lead in the second quarter," said Reutzel. "Then I went back to the guys who started the game and they didn't do anything any better than they had done in the first quarter, which had put us in a hole, so you had no place else to go.

"We're just not playing well offensively at all. They (Hazelwood Central) got their hands on a lot of passes and tipped a lot of them away and it was a struggle for us."

Cape Central will host New Madrid County Central on Friday in a SEMO Conference game.

Cape Central won Saturday's JV game 65-64 in overtime.