Scott City holds off Cape Central rally, claims FSCB fifth-place title

The No. 7 and No. 8 seeds in Scott City and Cape Central met for a fifth-place battle after a pair of upsets the round before, but Scott City grabbed an early lead and held on tight for a 38-36 win to grab fifth among a talented First State Community Bank Holiday Classic field.

By the second quarter, the Rams had already built a double-digit lead, and despite the furious rally of Cape Central before the half and between the third and fourth quarters, the Rams held on for a big win in the face of danger.

“I definitely have a greedy team, for sure,” Rams coach Cindy Henry said. “They're definitely responsive when it comes to that, and we knew what we needed to do coming in and they took care of the job.”

Opening the game hot, Scott City used its verticality to help itself to an early edge. Against a talented Central team, the Rams held the Tigers to a dismal scoring output with a 10-6 lead after the first quarter.

The second quarter saw more going in the way of the Tigers, with the transition game opening up more. While the defense initially got the Rams an early lead, the offense operated too slow to keep that edge when the Tigers got it going.

After leading 16-6, Scott City’s early lead fell to just 20-18 at halftime. Aaron Lee’s squad went to the locker room on a 12-4 run and all of the momentum after Emani Summers beat the buzzer on a driving layup.

Going into the intermission, Henry knew what her club had to do in order to limit the Cape Central offense after an explosive end to the second quarter.

“We can handle ball pressure,” Henry said. “Sometimes we get out there and we panic, you know? They’re high school athletes. Just trying to calm them down.

“Reminding them that they can handle ball pressure. Taking care of it and making sure that we drive and make people come in.”

Cape Central's Emani Summers (right-center) moves on defense during the December 21, 2023 First State Community Bank Holiday Classic fifth-place game between the Scott City Rams and the Cape Central Tigers at the Show Me Center in Cape Girardeau, Mo. Scott City defeated Cape Central, 38-36.Cole Lee ~ clee@semoball.com

Both teams started the second half with some hard misses on offense, but to the benefit of Scott City the Rams used this to hold onto their edge early as Cape Central left several points at the line.

Neither team could hit its shots early in the third, but just when Scott City began to pull away, two big Abigail Davenport 3-pointers brought the deficit down to one point late for the Tigers, who finished the period down 30-27.

For their first play of the fourth quarter, Davenport teed up from the top of the key and drilled a game-tying triple to finally bring her club back even.

Flying up in transition, Gracie Karrenbrock grabbed the lead back for the Rams at 34-32 with four minutes left in the fourth quarter, and Lilyan Landis’ and-1 on the next possession extended that lead to 37-33.

Down four points, Summers walked up to the 3-point line and drilled a triple to cut the deficit to one again, and after another scoreless two minutes, Cindy Henry called for a timeout up a point with 57.3 seconds remaining.

With a chance to win the game, Summers exited one last timeout with 2.2 seconds remaining as the primary shooter. She got the ball, stepped behind the 3-point line — but left it just short as Scott City made it to the finish line on the back of its early lead in a 38-36 win.

Scott City's Lilyan Landis (left-center) is embraced by her team after scoring an and-1 during the December 21, 2023 First State Community Bank Holiday Classic fifth-place game between the Scott City Rams and the Cape Central Tigers at the Show Me Center in Cape Girardeau, Mo. Scott City defeated Cape Central, 38-36.Cole Lee ~ clee@semoball.com

Landis led the Rams with 10 points scored in the win, including a crucial four in the fourth quarter. Karrenbrock and Mackenzie Lawless both chipped in eight more points in the win to command the Rams to the fifth-place trophy.

For the Tigers, the efforts of Summers and Davenport both ended in 14-point outings. Davenport’s four 3-pointers juiced up Cape Central in the second half, while Summers’ reliability gave the Tigers a consistent scorer to fall back on.

Exiting a stretch in which the Rams lost four of six games that ended with Wednesday’s big win against Woodland, Scott City’s 9-4 record now includes a signature dub against a talented and scrappy Cape Central team.

After entering as the No. 7 seed in the tournament, the Rams’ strong finish is a true testament to the fight that they put forward over the past week, and Henry believes that her team kicked it into a different gear in the latter part of the Holiday Classic.

“I think that we’ve definitely improved throughout this tournament,” Henry said. “It's been good for us. We're seeing a lot of good things.

“I feel like we're starting to understand the game well, but more than anything, we're understanding how to play with each other.”