Scott County Central boys basketball holds on to defeat Meadow Heights in Christmas tourney opener

During Meadow Heights boys basketball coach Nick Hermann's postgame message to his team following its first-round game of the Southeast Missourian Christmas Tournament, he acknowledged that their opponent, Scott County Central, consists of few returners from last season's state championship squad.

But he insisted the Braves are still a perennial power who will likely find their stride come district time.

Then Hermann, in his first season as the Panthers' head coach, added, "and we went toe to toe with them for three out of four quarters."

Sixth-seeded SCC used a decisive second quarter on Saturday evening at the Show Me Center to break the game open and held on for a 74-59 victory against the 11th-seeded Panthers.

"You take that second quarter out, and it's a different ballgame," Hermann said. "But Scott County did what they had to do. They did what winners do."

The two teams were tied at 17-all after the first quarter, but SCC scored the first 15 points of the second and outscored Meadow Heights 21-6 to take a 38-23 lead into halftime.

"We just secured the ball. We got a couple turnovers. We took care of the ball, and we finished," Braves first-year coach Matt Cline said of the second quarter. "We got the ball to the rim, and we finished. We took some decent shots there in the second quarter. We didn't just try to jack it up from the cheap seats."

The Braves scored the first six points of the game but the Panthers used a 7-2 run to cut it to one, and then took their first lead of the game with 4 minutes, 24 seconds left in the first on a conventional three-point play by Devin Wilfong that made it 10-8. Meadow Heights never trailed the remainder of the quarter.

Scott County Central's Gerald Sanders puts up a shot against Meadow Heights Trent Liley during the fourth quarter in a first-round game of the Southeast Missourian Christmas Tournament Saturday, Dec. 26, 2015 at the Show Me Center. (Fred Lynch)

SCC tied it with a basket by Deven Blackmon in the final seconds of the quarter to start a 17-0 run over the next 5 minutes.

Meadow Heights' first points of the second quarter came with 3:11 left before halftime on a pair of Brendan Welker free throws that cut it to 32-19. The Panthers made just two field goals in the second quarter.

"It's Scott County Central, so you know there's tradition. They've got prestige and all that, so we were proud to see the boys come out and play hard against them. They didn't play scared to start the game," Hermann said. "Second quarter, I don't know if just adrenaline came down or what. We just didn't respond and come back out and play with the same intensity that Scott County did."

Meadow Heights (5-2) started the second half with an 11-4 run to cut the deficit to 44-36 with 3:18 left in the quarter but never got any closer.

SCC's Jacob Brown knocked down a 3 at the buzzer to put the Braves up 55-44 going to the fourth. The Braves' lead remained in double figures the rest of the way.

"Meadow Heights came out, and they had a lot of energy and kind of caught us back on our heels a little bit," Cline said. "I felt like we was a little sluggish, just kind of went through the motions on offense. But they did stop and try to run an offense a little bit, and they didn't panic when Meadow Heights made a little run at us in the second half. So I was proud of them for that, but we've just got to learn to turn our intensity level up, come out every game ready to go."

SCC had four players score in double figures. Gerald Sanders finished with 21, Jeffery Porter and Blackmon had 16 apiece and Deantrell Beard had 14. The Braves were 11 of 14 from the free-throw line and made all seven of their attempts in the final quarter.

Jacob Douglas led the Panthers with 16 points, and Lane Baremore finished with 12.

Meadow Heights will face No. 14 Chaffee in a consolation quarterfinal at noon Monday.

SCC advanced to face No. 3 Notre Dame in a championship quarterfinal at 7:30 p.m. Monday.

"My message was we better strap it up for Monday night," Cline said, "because Notre Dame -- I've watched them a few times -- they're smart, they're tough, they're big. We've got to strap it up."

Meadow Heights 17 6 21 15 -- 59

SCC 17 21 17 19 -- 74

MEADOW HEIGHTS (59) -- Jacob Douglas 16, Trent Liley 7, Brenan Welker 8, Lane Baremore 12, Nick Mayfield 2, Scott Pohlman 6, Devin Wilfong 8. FG 22, FT 11-14, F 18. (3-pointers: Douglas 2, Lilley, Baremore. Fouled out: Mayfield.)

SCOTT COUNTY CENTRAL (74) -- Jacob Brown 5, Deven Blackmon 16, Deantrell Beard 14, Garry Wilkerson 2, Gerald Sanders 21, Jeffery Porter 16. FG 27, FT 18-21, F 14. (3-pointers: Brown, Sanders. Fouled out: None.)