Southeast Missourian Christmas Tournament: Ladd leads Advance to win over inexperienced Meadow Heights

There wasn't much that could slow down Advance's Austin Ladd on Friday night.

The junior forward finished the game 9 of 15 from the field (60 percent) with a career-high 20 points, including 16 in the first half to power the seventh-seeded Hornets to a 66-46 win over No. 10 Meadow Heights in the first round of the Southeast Missourian Christmas tournament at the Show Me Center.

"It feels wonderful. It feels great," Ladd said about leading Advance to an opening-round win. "I just love doing this and trying to get the best shot possible so I can help my team win. We knew we had to come out strong early on, and everything seemed to be falling for us."

Advance coach Dennis Wheetley said he knew Ladd could score a lot of points, but he'd like to see that kind of play from him more often.

Meadow Heights jumped out to an early 7-3 lead thanks to consecutive 3s from junior Jacob Douglas and sophomore Spencer Bragg as well as a free throw by Douglas with 3 minutes, 23 seconds remaining in the first quarter.

Wheetley said he was unhappy with the way the Hornets played for most of the night but was especially bothered by their play in the opening five minutes.

"I didn't think we came out of the gates with any intensity at all," Wheetley said. "We didn't play well, turned the ball over way too many times, but it was just intensity. It wasn't there tonight, so it's going to have to be a lot better tomorrow night. I really never did see them turn it up that much. We'd get on a little run, then we'd turn the ball over. ... We came out on top, but I thought they outplayed us."

After Douglas' make from the charity stripe, Advance went on a 14-0 run, which carried over into the second quarter. Ladd scored six points during that span, including two layups and two free throws, while Dalton Wilson netted five points, including two free throws to extend the lead to 17-7 with 7:19 remaining in the half.

"Like I've said before, we've got some shooters," Wheetley said. "Early on we weren't shooting very good and finally we hit a few. That's the way we are, you know, streaky."

Meadow Heights responded with a 6-0 run to cut the lead to 17-13, but it wasn't enough to power past the Hornets before halftime.

Advance's Austin Ladd, left, challenges Meadow Heights Tyler Cook for a rebound during the third quarter of a first-round game in the Southeast Missourian Christmas Tournament Friday, Dec. 26, 2014 at the Show Me Center. (Fred Lynch)

Advance closed out the half on a 21-11 run, its largest run of the game, hitting 3 of 3 shots from beyond the arc to grab a 38-24 lead at the break.

Meadow Heights coach Mark Verticchio said his team's inexperience led to the loss.

"The night of the drawing, when we seeded this thing, a couple of coach's told me, 'The environment will scare them,' And I think it did," Verticchio said. "Sspecially our two sophomores [Jacob Hunt and Spencer Bragg]. They've been averaging 10 or 15 a game and they didn't get anywhere near that. They just did not play well and that's not their fault, they're just kids. All in all I'm not displeased. They had some runs on us and all three of our losses have all been about runs."

The Panthers turned the ball over 14 times int the first half and finished the game with 29.

Advance's press led to many of those turnovers. Verticchio said his team struggled to adjust to it throughout the game.

"We didn't adjust to the press as well as I thought we would," Verticchio said. "We had a really hard time getting the ball to the middle of the floor. We had talked about it for two days. A lot of times we didn't even have someone in the middle of the floor and that was bad. I think to break their press you've got to have someone in the middle. Our guy would run through when he was supposed to stop and he just didn't. That's just a panic thing that we'll have to adjust as the season goes."

Advance senior Grant Woodfin scored seven of his nine points in the quarter, including a 3 to extend the lead to 59-32 with 45 seconds to play in the third.

Advance forced Meadow Heights to turn the ball over eight more times in the third, seven of which came off of steals in the press.

Advance coach Dennis Wheetley directs his team against Meadow Heights during the third quarter of a first-round game in the Southeast Missourian Christmas Tournament Friday, Dec. 26, 2014 at the Show Me Center. (Fred Lynch)

Wheetley said he was impressed with the way the Hornets played defense throughout the game.

"They struggled a little bit on the press, they really did," Wheetley said about Meadow Heights. "They're young and we were able to make them turn it over and get lucky on a few unforced errors as well. But the guys know where to be on the press most of the time and they execute it. It's not perfect, but it's getting there."

Meadow Heights outscored Advance 11-7 in the fourth, but the Panthers never came within 18 points of Advance for the remainder of the game.

Douglas led Meadow Height with 13 points, while Bragg added 12.

Meadow Heights fell to the consolation bracket and will play Chaffee at 10:30 am Saturday.

Wilson netted 16 points for the Hornets and Brian Whitson contributed 10.

Advance moved on to play No. 2 Cape Central in a quarterfinal at 6 p.m. Saturday.

"We better be able to take care of the ball tomorrow night or they're going to beat us by 50," Wheetley said. "It's going to be a challenge, no doubt about that. I hope these kids will step up and come out here and want to win. They don't have nothing to lose. Cape Central is tough, but we're looking forward to playing them. It will just make us better."

Meadow Heights 7 17 11 11 -- 46

Advance 13 25 21 7 -- 66

MEADOW HEIGHTS (46) -- Jacob Douglas 13, Spencer Bragg 12, Tyler Cook 9, Justin McGuire 4, Lane Baremore 3, Jacob Hunt 3, Brendan Welker 2. (3-pointers: Douglas 4, Bragg 1, Hunt 1. Fouled out: none)

ADVANCE (66) -- Austin Ladd 20, Dalton Wilson 16, Brian Whitson 10, Grant Woodfin 9, Preston Wuebker 6, Dakota Welty 2, C. J. Seger 2, Alex Morse 1. (3-pointers: Whitson 2, Wuebker 2. Fouled out: none)