Jackson, Cape to meet for Christmas tournament championship

~ the Southeast Missourian Christmas Tournament wraps up today with four games

The Jackson boys basketball team marched to the championship game of the Southeast Missourian Christmas Tournament with three wins by an average of 41 points.

After facing three Class 1 schools on their way to the final, the Indians will face Class 4 rival Central at 7:30 p.m. tonight at the Show Me Center.

Not that they've had any trouble facing bigger schools, either. Top-seeded Jackson is undefeated at 8-0 and already has won the prestigious SEMO Conference Tournament championship.

"They're very good," Central coach Drew Church said of Jackson after his team's semifinal win Saturday night. "They're good at every position. Their guards are good, their bigs are good, they're well-coached. It'll be tough for us. We've just got to come in and try to do the detail, blue-collar things and hope that we can compete with them.

Junior Blake Reynolds has scored 45 points to lead Jackson in the tournament while senior Karson King has collected 41 points.

Jackson coach Darrin Scott said Saturday night that his team would practice on Sunday but would save preparing for its opponent until game day.

"Tomorrow will just be about us," Scott said after his team's semifinal win. "We'll come in ... and work on our stuff. Then Monday we'll come in at 11 and go for an hour and prepare for if it's Cape or Charleston."

Of course, Scott now knows its third-seeded Central the Indians will face after the Tigers pulled off a surprising rout of Charleston in the semifinals.

"You got to try and control Cox and Statam, make their guards beat you and make their guard play the issue," Scott said of a matchup against the Tigers.

Central senior Jamal Cox, who is listed at 6-foot-7, has scored 59 points in the tournament while 6-6 junior Andre Statam has added 55.

The pair should provide a more stern test of Jackson's 6-7 Reynolds, 6-6 Karson King and 6-8 Brandon Lueders on the interior, although King and Statam both play outside equally well or better.

Jackson is making its first final appearance since 2010 when it fell to Scott County Central. The Indians last won the title in 2007.

This is the second consecutive season the Tigers have advanced to the title game, but Central hasn't won the championship since 1996.

No. 2 Charleston and No. 5 Scott County Central will face off in the third-place game at 6 p.m.

"It could be a game," Charleston coach Danny Farmer said of the matchup. "It's a toss up. That's what I see is a toss up because you never know which team from both of us is going to come out to play, so I think it's a toss up."

No. 4 Notre Dame and No. 6 Oran will play for the fifth-place trophy at 4:30 p.m. Oran defeated Advance for fifth place a year ago while Notre Dame finished fourth after losing to Jackson in the third-place game.

Championship night will start with No. 9 Oak Ridge facing No. 10 Advance in the consolation final at 3 p.m. today.

Advance senior Lane Below leads all scorers in the tournament with 68 points scored. Oak Ridge's Jake LeGrand is third with 64 points.

It is the fourth consecutive year the Blue Jays have appeared in the consolation title game. They defeated Scott City 61-55 for the trophy last season.

"You obviously want to play on the other side because the ninth-place trophy still says ninth place," Oak Ridge coach Adam Stoneking said. "You want to play on that side even if you win and get beat by 40 or not, but you can't always be. You've just got to look at it as -- when we lost that game we just turned around and said, 'OK, we're playing another tournament. We're the one seed, and let's hold seed. We want to play all four days. That's our goal at the beginning of the season -- play on the last day of every tournament. If you play on the last day of every tournament you're normally going to have a pretty good year."