Strong second half by Scott City boys basketball team dooms East Prairie

EAST PRAIRIE -- A night after their come-from-behind win over Cooter, the East Prairie Eagles were in need of some fourth-quarter magic as they hosted Scott City on Friday for homecoming.

Unfortunately for the Eagles, a 27-point second half from Scott City sophomore Dylan Keller highlighted a strong finish in the Rams' 83-70 win.

"This is what we've been asking them to do is compete," Scott City coach Mark Dannenmueller said. "Things don't go well early on. Shots weren't falling. We weren't playing real good defense, and the ball didn't bounce our way a couple times. We hung around a little bit, and I thought we just kept playing. That's what we've been trying to get out of them is to just keep playing. I thought we grew up tonight."

It was Scott City's ability to finish strong in both the second and third quarter that had the Eagles (11-9) fighting from a hole most of the night. With a nine-point lead midway through the second quarter, East Prairie allowed an 11-2 run that saw the Rams take a 32-30 lead into halftime.

After matching each other nearly shot-for-shot the first four minutes of the second half, Scott City (15-6) once again strung together a big run to pull away. Keller had seven straight points as part of another 11-point run to extend the Rams' advantage to 11 points at 53-42 with 3:36 left in the quarter.

"The third quarter has sort of been our nightmare," East Prairie head coach Casey Knight said. "I thought we did better tonight compared to some nights, where we're giving up 16-2 runs there in the third. They were able to get some separation there, and that's where their fundamentals take over. And it's hard to get those stops late."

An East Prairie rally cut the Rams' lead to eight points to start the fourth quarter and down to six points at 68-62 with 3:51 left to play.

Turnovers on back-to-back possessions hurt the Eagles' comeback bid, and it wasn't long before Scott City was content to drain time off the clock. The Rams hit 9 of 10 shots from the foul line in the final 2:21 to slowly pull ahead, while grabbing three defensive rebounds in the final minute to limit the East Prairie's chances.

Much of the credit for the Rams' second half success was attributed to Keller, who only collected five points in the first half before finishing with a game-high 32 points. He scored 11 points in the third quarter before adding another 16 points in the fourth.

He went a perfect 6 of 6 at the charity stripe, all in the fourth quarter, and had all four of his team's 3-pointers on the night.

Braden Cox scored all but two of his 16 points in the second half for Scott City, while Trent Pobst and Brock Uelsmann contributed 13 and 12 points, respectively.

Brandon Evans led the Eagles (11-9) with 25 points. He scored 17 points in his team's second-half comeback, including 15 straight at one point.

Mack Marcum added 17 points to the Eagles' cause.

East Prairie 17 13 20 20 -- 70

Scott City 11 21 26 25 -- 83

EAST PRAIRIE (70) -- Seth Bays 8, Dustin Bryars 8, Mack Marcum 17, Brett Ellis 2, Cade Douglas 3, Deverence Jones 5, Nick Grubbs 2, Brandon Evans 25. FG 29, FT 5-9, F 19. (3-pointers: Bays 2, Bryars 1, Marcum 1. Fouled out: None.)

SCOTT CITY (83) -- Dylan Keller 32, Trent Pobst 13, Nick Bickings 2, Isiah Berry 4, Jordan Kluesner 4, Brock Uelsmann 12, Braden Cox 16. FG 33, FT 13-17, F 15. (3-pointers: Keller 4. Fouled out: Pobst, Berry.)