Tigers falter in McCord's CHS debut

The brand new orange tie looked sharp.

But the turnovers, the missed shots and the loss aren't exactly Derek McCord's style.

McCord, a highly successful coach at Scott City, suffered a loss in his Cape Central debut Tuesday night as visiting Perryville prevailed 45-36 in a sloppy, albeit competitive, game at the Tiger Field House.

It was the season opener for both teams.

"It's frustrating," said McCord, who spent 10 years building Scott City into a Class 2A power. "We didn't handle the ball well at times. But the kids played hard and we're going to be a better basketball team."

Central turned the ball over 12 times, which is a lot considering the slow-paced nature of Tuesday night's game. The Tigers made only 18 of 50 shots (36 percent). Junior Dorian McElmurry, led the Tigers with eight points.

"We've got to shoot better," McCord said.

Perryville is much more experienced than Central and it showed Tuesday night as the Pirates fought off a tenacious comeback bid by the Tigers.

Perryville turned the ball over nine times and made key shots down the stretch.

"It was an offensive struggle," Perryville coach Jeff Steffens said. "I thought we hustled. I thought we played hard and made some adjustments in rebounding."

Perryville managed to keep the Tigers at an uncomfortable distance throughout the entire second half. The Pirates never could put Central away and the Tigers, who trailed 36-29 with 4:40 left, never quit. Central cut its deficit to just three points on a basket by Matt Cardin with 1:30 left.

Perryville scored the final six points to put the game away.

Perryville senior Andrew Meyr led all scorers with 16 points, with 11 of them coming in the first half. Perryville's 6-foot-6 senior center Chad Ozark chipped in with 11 points.

"There's a lot of things we need to improve on," said Steffens. "We missed a lot of easy baskets in the lane and to be competitive, we need to stick those in the basket."

Central took its first lead of the game at the 7-minute mark of the second quarter. McElmurry hit a chip-shot to give the Tigers a 14-13 advantage. The lead exchanged hands twice over the next three minutes then the Pirates ended the first half on a 9-0 run to take a 26-18 lead into halftime.

After trailing by double figures twice early in the third quarter, the Tigers got back into the game, outscoring Perryville 7-1 in the final 6:00 of the period. The Tigers trailed just 31-27 going into the fourth.