SLOW-STARTING CAPE CENTRAL LOOKS FOR ANOTHER STRONG SHOWING IN CHRISTMAS TOURNAMENT

Either the Cape Central Tigers have been underrated or have overachieved in recent U-High Tournament history.

Last year, the Tigers were seeded sixth and finished third.

In 1996, Central was seeded fourth and took first.

The Tigers are looking to surprise the tournament of the 16-team field again, as Central, after dropping its first four games, have been seeded seventh.

"It's a tough tournament to seed and I don't disagree with the seed," Central coach Brett Reutzel said. "We went into the seeding meeting winless and some teams have played some good basketball.

"You still have got to play the games, so it's not that big of a deal in one sense, but in another sense I can use (the low seed) to motivate my players."

Central is in much the same predicament it was in last year.

The Tigers got off to a horrible start then ended up hitting its stride midway through the season and ended up winning the SEMO Conference.

And Central began figuring some things out in the U-High Tournament.

"This could be a place to jumpstart ourselves again and sort of back up and re-evaluate and just get going again," Reutzel said."

Central started the season out 0-4, including a loss to fourth-seeded Notre Dame in the season opener.

But the Tigers have won two straight, including an upset win over previously unbeaten Farmington, a game which Ross Conner scored 27 points.

Conner, a 6-foot-5 post player, is averaging 13.1 points per game this season despite scoring just five points total over the first two games. He is averaging eight rebounds.

Jonathon Ayers has provided a lot offensive firepower for Central, scoring 11.1 points and pulling down six rebounds per game and Eric Wessel, primarily a 3-point threat, scores 9.2 a game and provides about six rebounds as well.

Other key contributors for the Tigers have been T.J. Erlacker at point guard, Corey Lewis, Dimetrius Totten and Chad Jones.

Central has sorely missed versatile forward Kelly Illers and point guard Nick Swoboda, who both graduated, and Donnie McClinton who transferred to Sikeston. Reutzel was concerned that it might take some time for three new starters to mesh with Conner and Wessel.

"We talked early in the season about getting a few wins early," Reutzel said. "We've got a rough schedule starting out and we don't win a few games, we don't get a lot of respect. In the first four games, we've put together some good halves, but we're starting to put the pieces together."

If Central is to challenge for the U-High title, it will have a rough road.

It plays a tough No. 10 seed in Oran at 6 p.m. Monday. In the second round, it could face No. 2 Scott City in what could pit two of the premier post players in the region in Conner and Ryan Weatherspoon.

"They've played against each other for three years and both are great athletes," Reutzel said. "It should be interesting. But I'm not looking past Oran. They're a pretty good basketball team."