Rams sink Pirates at homecoming

Brenden Beussink scored 15 points as the Scott City Rams sink the Perryville Pirates 54-48 on Friday in Scott City.

After an inconsistent season, homecoming was a great time for the junior to regain his form.

"His shot hasn't fallen for him a lot this year," Scott City head coach Mark Dannenmueller said. "He's one of our better shooters and I've been trying to just be positive with him and tell him you got to find another way to put the ball in the hole, and he's been doing that. He's been getting to the rim."

Ethen Blythe led the Pirates with a game-high 19 points. Jake Cissell also chipped in 15 points for Perryville.

After the Pirates took an early 4-0 lead, the Rams went on a 12-1 run, capped by a three-point basket by Luke Unfleet.

Entering the second quarter trailing 12-7, Perryville clawed back to take a 21-20 lead on a layup by Andrew Terbrak.

The Rams reclaimed the lead on a shot inside the paint by Jackson Gloth to go into halftime up 24-23. The freshman finished the game with eight points.

Scott City senior Colin Blaylock scored six of his eight points in the third quarter, helping the Rams outscore the Pirates 15-8 to lead 40-31 going into the fourth quarter.

Led by Blythe's 11-point outburst, the Pirates tried to mount a comeback in the final period. The Rams found themselves on the charity stripe during the fourth quarter and held on to win by making 10-of-11 free throws.

Scott City senior Lane Johnston went 6-of-7 from the free-throw line in the fourth quarter to finish the game with 10 points. Johnston and Blaylock have led the Rams all season as the lone two seniors.

"Honestly, they are two of the best kids that you can have," Dannenmueller said. "It's one of those things like you want them to play well because you care about them as individuals first."

Scott City (10-14) has won five straight games, starting with their 5th-place finish in the Scott-Miss Tournament last week. The Rams went 5-14 through the first two months of the season. Dannenmueller has tried to keep a consistent message with the Rams and said he finally started seeing a breakthrough last month against Chaffee.

"We just said, we're gonna continue to work hard, and you're gonna just constantly punch that wall and eventually it's gonna break down, and our kids have done that," Dannenmueller said.

The Rams travel to Scott County Central on Wednesday for the final game of the regular season. Scott City will open the Class 3 District 2 Tournament next Friday at Saxony Lutheran against the hosting Crusaders.

Perryville (5-19) returns home to host Windsor on Tuesday.