New Madrid blisters Cape Central 66-40

SIKESTON, Mo. -- After getting a late start on practice because the school's football team reached the Class 3A state championship game, New Madrid County Central coach Joby Holland figures his Eagles are still not even close to rounding into form.

But you'd have a hard time convincing the Cape Girardeau Central Tigers of that.

The top-seeded Eagles ran roughshod over the eighth-seeded Tigers Monday night as they romped 66-40 in the opening round of the 30th annual Sikeston Tournament.

NMCC, the two-time defending tourney champion and also the two-time defending 3A state champion, improved to 2-0. The Eagles will play No. 5 Blytheville (Ark.) tonight at 8:30 p.m. in the semifinals.

Central will take on No. 4 Sikeston tonight at 7 p.m. in the consolation semifinals.

Other first-round action Monday saw Blytheville avenge an earlier loss to Sikeston 52-50 and No. 7 Kennett upset No. 2 Charleston 67-62. The opening round concludes today at 5:30 p.m. as No. 3 Poplar Bluff faces No. 6 Doniphan.

"We played our first game Friday with just about four practices behind us and we've still got a long way to go," said Holland, who took over the Eagles' program when legendary coach Lennies McFerren stepped down after last year's state title run. "I thought at times we looked good tonight. We got rolling some but we didn't show much consistency."

Ronland Ranson, a strong 6-foot-4 senior center, had his way with the Tigers inside as he scored a game-high 21 points.

"He's a strong player and he's got his body in pretty good shape," Holland said.

Dereke Tipler, the Eagles' splendid senior point guard who is an all-stater in both basketball and football, scored eight of his 12 points in the first quarter but was more impressive with his penetrating and pin-point passing. The ultra-smooth Tipler helped control play on both ends of the court, as is usually the case.

"Having him doesn't hurt a thing," said a smiling Holland. "He's a once in a lifetime player for a high school coach."

Sophomore Ryan Delph paced the young Tigers (1-2) with 11 points but no other Central player had more than five points.

"It's going to be a roller coaster ride," said Central first-year coach Derek McCord. "Any time you have a young team like we have, there will be a lot of ups and downs.

"We were outmanned in every facet of the game. We have a lot to work on."

McCord, while acknowledging how much better NMCC is than Central, was disappointed that the Tigers were not able to match the effort they displayed Friday when they won at De Soto.

"As hard as we played Friday night, I was disappointed in our effort tonight," McCord said. "They were the better team, but we could have played better and made it a better game."

Central led once all night, at 2-0 as Delph scored the game's opening basket. But NMCC came back with an 8-0 run and the rout was pretty much on.

The Eagles led 19-10 after one quarter and 35-14 at halftime. It was 48-24 entering the final period and NMCC led by as many as 32 points in the late going.