SCC GETS BELL RUNG

Scott County Central coach Steve Wells was feeling a little ESP.

Bell City coach David Heeb was feeling deja vu.

The Cubs, however, were just plain feeling it.

Tenth-seeded Bell City scorched the nets in the first half Wednesday as it pulled off the biggest upset of the day, a 70-66 win over No. 7 Scott County Central, in the first round of the 56th annual University High Christmas Tournament.

In some other first-round games, No. 2 Jackson downed No. 15 Oak Ridge 65-30; No. 3 Notre Dame defeated No. 14 Chaffee 79-54 and No. 6 Cape Central clobbered No. 11 Leopold 71-47.

Bell City, which suffered a 82-74 to the Braves almost four weeks ago, made five of its first nine three-pointers and 13 of its first 22 shots overall.

But after the Cubs' first five possessions -- four of which resulted in turnovers -- Heeb was a little worried.

"I was thinking deja vu at that point," said Heeb, a Scott Central graduate in his first year with Bell City. "That was the same exact way we started the other game and we couldn't recover."

But Jason Rampley -- who scored a game-high 18 points -- hit the first of his three three-pointers to stop a 7-0 run and Bell City was on its way to a 16-14 lead at the end of the first quarter. The Cubs (5-2) led 40-31 at halftime by as many as 13 points in the third quarter.

The Braves made the game close in the fourth quarter, pulling to within 67-64 with 2:02 to go, but Bell City was able to hold them off. Perhaps the biggest basket of the game came when Eric Henry -- who scored 16 points -- tipped in a rare Rampley miss to push the score to 69-64 with 1:22 left.

Wells, meanwhile, wasn't too surprised that his team wasn't real sharp. Though he gave Bell City credit, Wells thought several circumstances -- starting when he canceled a morning practice because of the weather -- played a role in the loss.

"We jumped out to a 7-0 lead, but I had an uneasy feeling about this game," Wells said. "Things just sometimes aren't going to go your way."

Those "things" started before the opening tip off as one of the Braves' players, Dominitrix Johnson, injured his knee in warm-ups.

Todd Blissett led Scott Central with 17 points, while Chris Johnson added 14 and Desmen Johnson provided 11.

For Bell City, Brian Phillips chipped in with 17 points including three makes from behind the arc.

No. 2 Jackson 65

No. 15 Oak Ridge 30

Jackson (4-3) had 11 players score as it had no problem with the Blue Jays. Nathan Brown led the way with 13 points for Jackson, followed by Seth McDowell with 10.

Clayton Reusler led Oak Ridge with nine points.

Jackson pulled out to a 41-17 lead by halftime and led 56-24 going into the fourth quarter.

No. 3 Notre Dame 79

No. 14 Chaffee 54

The Bulldogs led 49-26 at halftime and 73-34 going into the fourth quarter.

Notre Dame (5-2) got 21 points from Jacob Ressel and 20 points from Mark Rubel. Doug Schaefer and Cory Beussink had 12 points apiece.

Chaffee (1-5) got more than half of its points from 6-foot-1 forward Matt Stroup, who scored 29 points, the most by any player in the first round.

No. 6 Cape Central 71

No. 11 Leopold 47

Cape Central shot 48 percent from the field as it set up a Cape Girardeau showdown with No. 3 Notre Dame in the second round.

"I think we realized Leopold was a pretty good team and we knew we had to play hard and well to beat them," said Cape Central coach Brett Reutzel. "We were pretty relaxed and focused."

Central forced 16 turnovers in the first half while allowing Leopold to get off just 15 shots as the Tigers sprinted out to a 34-15 lead at the break.

The Tigers had 11 players score. Willie Colon led the way with 12 points, while Chris Cole added 10.

Paul Hutchings led Leopold with 11 points.