Porter, Beard help Scott County get past Scott City in Christmas Tournament fifth-place semi

Scott City's Dylan Keller had already knocked down seven 3-pointers and all four of his free-throw attempts on Tuesday night when he stepped to the charity stripe for a one-and-one with 6.3 seconds remaining and the seventh-seeded Rams trailing No. 6 Scott County Central by three.

Keller missed his only free throw and when Scott City came up with the rebound most of the crowd in the Show Me Center and SCC coach Matt Cline expected the ball to end up back in Keller's hands with a chance to tie.

Instead the Rams got off a shot in the paint and missed in the closing seconds and the Braves held on for a 75-72 victory in a fifth-place semifinal of the Southeast Missourian Christmas Tournament.

"I always like to have a timeout there and I wasted all of them," Scott City coach Mark Dannenmueller said. "I wish I would've had another one to set it up and walk everybody through it, so it was just a mental lapse and a spur of the moment type thing and we just didn't make a play."

The two teams were tied at 33 at halftime after a tip-in by Rams senior Trent Pobst on a baseline out of bounds play in the closing seconds of the first half.

Out of halftime, SCC senior Jeffery Porter outscored the Rams 16-13, scoring all but four of his team's third-quarter points.

He started the second half with three made free throws 13 seconds into the third quarter and ended the quarter with a layup with three seconds left after going coast to coast to put the Braves up 53-46 going to the fourth. He had just three free throws in the fourth quarter and finished with 26 points.

"It's coming along," Cline said of Porter taking over games. "Jeff does a good job of trying to get everybody involved. He's very unselfish and he tries to get everybody involved, and he did a good job taking more of it on himself and taking a bigger load on himself tonight."

A 3-pointer by Eric Smith to start the fourth quarter pushed SCC's lead to 10 and the Braves went up 63-52 with 4 minutes, 44 seconds remaining on a 3-point play by Brody Ditto.

The Rams then went on a 13-1 run to pull within three with 1:52 remaining, and the Braves never pushed the advantage to more than five points the remainder of the game.

After Deantrall Beard knocked down a pair of free throws to make it 74-69 with 27.7 seconds left, Keller knocked down his final triple to cut it to two.

Deven Blackmon missed the second of a pair of free throws before Keller was sent to the line and the Rams were unable to sent it to overtime.

Scott City's Dylan Keller drives to the basket as Scott County Central's Jacob Brown defends during the first quarter of a fifth-place semifinal in the Southeast Missourian Christmas Tournament Tuesday, Dec. 29, 2015 at the Show Me Center. (FRED LYNCH)

"I felt like they played a little bit more like a team, not three or four kids out playing one-on-one," Cline said. "I thought we played a little bit more team ball tonight."

Scott City led 17-16 after the first quarter and led by as many as five in the second.

"It's the same thing as [against] Cape Central [Monday] -- we can't make layups," Dannenmueller said of his team's first half. "It's a mental block that we have right now and I don't know what it is. It's been that way all season and I've got to fix it, so I'm trying to figure out what I can do to fix it.

"We missed nine layups in the first half. I counted them. If the kids make half of those, instead of a tie game you're up 10. It was the same way when we played Cape -- you've got a chance to separate yourself from a good team, that way when they go on their little 6 or 7-0 spurt it's either a tie ballgame or you're still ahead. We didn't do that and like I said, I've got to figure out a way to get them ready to go."

Keller finished with 27 points for the Rams. Four of his seven 3-pointers came in the first half. Cline said he didn't think his players did a good job extending out to cover him in the first 16 minutes.

"Coach Dannenmueller does a good job of moving him around," Cline said. "He moves him around in 2, 3, 4 different spots and he doesn't just camp out on the wing or anything, and we're not locating him."

Forward Deantrell Beard finished with 29 points for the Braves. He had 17 of his team's 33 first-half points and made 4 of 5 free throws in the fourth quarter.

"He's learning," Cline said. "He hasn't played basketball since he was an eighth grader. He played pickup ball, but he's learning to be a basketball player. I was proud of him. The other night when we played Meadow Heights we tried to get him to face those kids up and try to beat them off the dribble and it was like pulling teeth. Then tonight he did it a couple times, so you can see him growing."

Cline said his players would be "fired up" for a rematch with No. 5 Advance in the fifth-place game at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday. The Hornets defeated SCC 90-89 in the Oran Invitational Tournament championship on Dec. 4.

"Everybody on their team can shoot it from half court and they've got Dawson [Mayo] inside and [Austin] Ladd inside working their tails off rebounding," Cline said. "Bubba does such a good job with them. They're pretty disciplined. They're just a pretty good bunch."

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SCC 14 19 20 22 -- 75

Scott City 17 16 13 26 -- 72

SCC (75) -- Brody Ditto 9, Eric Smith 3, Deven Blackmon 7, Deantrall Beard 29, Gerald Sanders 1, Jeffery Porter 26. FG 27, FT 19-27, F 15. (3-pointers: Smith, Porter. Fouled out: None.)

SCOTT CITY (72) -- Dylan Keller 27, Trent Pobst 12, Ty Wilthong 4, Isiah Berry 5, Jordan Kluesner 9, Braden Cox 15. FG 26, FT 11-14, F 21. (3-pointers: Keller 7, Berry, Kluesner. Fouled out: None.)