Southeast Missourian Christmas Tournament: Jackson topples Scott County Central

After struggling to find a groove early in their previous game against Scott City, Jackson coach Darrin Scott needed to find a way to motivate the top-seeded Indians before their meeting with No. 4 Scott County Central.

Scott's pregame message to his players and the realization that they were one win away from the Southeast Missourian Christmas Tournament championship game was all it took to get the Indians going.

Jackson hit 30 of 49 (61 percent) shots from the field and took an early 14-point lead, which they never relinquished, in a 72-47 rout of the Braves in a semifinal on Monday night at the Show Me Center.

"We knew that they were going to want to get out and run, and that's also what we wanted to do," Braden Wendel said. "Coach had three things he wanted us to get done. We wanted to beat them on the glass, stop the transition and get transition points of our own, and keep them out of the paint. He said if we do those three things that he felt like we were going to win. He said, 'It's going to go one of two ways. It's going to be close, or we're going to beat them by 30. If we play our game, you're not going to be surprised when we beat them by 30.' And that's what we came out and did."

Wendel scored 19 points and was one of three Jackson players to score in double figures. He was joined by senior Blake Reynolds, who added 24 points, and Jacob Smith who scored 11.

SCC coach Frank Staple said Jackson's size and ability to move the ball around the perimeter was too much for the Braves to handle.

"Jackson makes it tough," SCC coach Frank Staple said. "The thing about Jackson, they've got a lot of size, but to go along with that size, they're so smart. They have high basketball IQ, and they do so many things right. They pretty much took us out of everything tonight. We didn't rebound, we made bad passes, we weren't able to get out and do anything in transition, so from the first quarter on they just kind of dominated us and hopefully that's something we can learn from."

SCC scored consecutive baskets to trim the deficit to 22-10 at the end of the first, but could never come within 12 points for the remainder of the game.

"I thought our focus and intensity was much better. We were sharp on defense finding guys, we were sharp getting on shooters and then we rebounded really well," Scott said. "We do those things and we're a pretty good team. We don't, then we're average."

Each team doubled their score in the second quarter, with Jackson taking a 44-20 lead at the break.

Javonta Daniel scored 11 points in the first half, while Jeffery Porter added nine points. Daniel and Porter were the only two players to score in the first half for the Braves.

Porter finished with 18 points to lead SCC, and Daniel added 17.

"We've got to move on. Obviously we knew it would have taken a perfect effort for us to come out and beat Jackson," Staple said. "The thing about it is, we've got a game to play tomorrow and at the end of the season you're going to have bumps and bruises. Tonight is ugly, but we've just got to take the things that we can learn from it and we move on to the next night."

SCC will play No. 2 Central in the third-place game at 6 p.m. today.

Jackson advanced to the championship game to take on Notre Dame at 7:30 p.m.

"We'll come up with our keys, what we've got to do and then just make sure we're mentally ready to play and see what happens," Scott said.

SCC 10 10 14 13 -- 47

Jackson 22 22 23 5 -- 72

SCC (47) -- Jeffery Porter 18. Javonta Daniel 17, Tre Moore 7, Matt Blissett 5. FG 17, FT 12-17, F 15 (3-pointers: Moore. Fouled out: none.)

JACKSON (72) -- Blake Reynolds 24, Braden Wendel 19, Jacob Smith 11, Connor Shepard 8, Jacob Friess 6, Garrett Walker 2, Stephen Irons 2. FG 30, FT 6-13, F 17. (3-pointers: 1. Fouled out: none.)