Southeast Missourian Christmas Tournament: Second-quarter surge sends Central past Advance

The No. 7 Advance Hornets' game plan for what coach Bubba Wheetley called the "bigger, stronger and faster" Central Tigers in a quarterfinal of the Southeast Missourian Christmas tournament on Saturday night was to try to keep them from scoring in the paint, limit offensive rebounds and not get in a foot race with some of their quicker guards.

The Hornets did a decent job of that in the opening quarter, and trailed by just four points heading to the second before Central was able to take control of the paint, the boards and the pace in a decisive second quarter that led to a 72-51 win for the Tigers.

"I think we did OK. I think the intensity was better than last night," Wheetley said. "They were just bigger, stronger and faster. That second quarter we just never recovered from, and you're not going to. If you get behind to a good team like that it's hard to recover. I thought we came back the second half and played hard. Like I said, they were just better than us."

The Tigers led 18-14 at the end of the first quarter before dismantling Advance's defensive game plan.

Central came up with an offensive rebound on its first possession of the second quarter, which led to a Peyton Montgomery 3-pointer, the Tigers' only 3 of the game, to extend the lead to 21-14.

The Tigers never led by fewer than seven points the remainder of the game.

Andre Statam and Al Young combined for 14 of Central's 23 second-quarter points, nearly all of which came in the paint, to help the Tigers to a 41-25 lead at the break.

Guard Kway'chon Chisom, who finished with nine points, scored the final basket of the half on a transition layup as time expired.

"We just had too many breakdowns. A few fast breaks, not blocking out at times and giving up some easy baskets," Wheetley said.

The Hornets were held to 11 points in that quarter, and six came from the free-throw line.

"We came out a little flat, not necessarily effort-wise, but shooting-wise, and once the game got going we just kind of stayed with what we do and some shots went down, and we started getting some transition points and that always helps," Central coach Drew Church said.

Advance never cut the deficit to single digits in the second half. Church thought his team guarded the Hornets well, and was especially pleased with the defense of Young and Chisom.

"I know he scored some points, but I thought he guarded well," Church said of Young. "I thought he guarded well, and I thought he really stretched their defense and made some good passes. Al scores well, but he does some other things. He passes well, he guards well, and I thought he did a good job on No. 30 [Austin Ladd]."

Young finished with 24 points and was 11 of 15 from the floor. Andre Statam added 15 points for the Tigers, with 12 coming in the first half. Montgomery scored 13 points.

Preston Wuebker and Dalton Wilson finished with 15 points apiece to lead Advance.

Central advanced to a semifinal against No. 3 Notre Dame at 7:30 p.m. Monday night.

Advance will face No. 6 Woodland at 4:30 p.m. Monday in a fifth-place semifinal.

"I told them to get to bed early tonight because it's the weekend," Church said. "We're going to do a hard practice tomorrow. And I told them that we're going to have a game plan for whoever we play and they need to learn it and have a bunch of effort, and we'll go at it Monday."

(7) Advance 14 11 10 16 -- 51

(2) Central 18 23 16 15 -- 72

ADVANCE (51) -- Preston Wuebker 15, Brian Whitson 4, Austin Ladd 4, Alex Morse 2, Dalton Wilson 15, Dawson Mayo 11. FG 17, FT 12-16, F 13. (3-pointers: Wuebker 4, Whitson 1. Fouled out: none.)

CENTRAL (72) --Nikylus Thompson 6, Al Young 24, Peyton Montgomery 13, Khane Booker 4, Blake Harris 1, Kway'chon Chisom 9, Andrew Statam 15. FG 33, FT 5-11, F 19. (3-pointers: Montgomery. Fouled out: none.)