TIGERS SEE SEASON END IN DISTRICTS

FARMINGTON, Mo. -- Cape Girardeau Central High's boys basketball team has not exactly been an offensive juggernaut this season.

But Monday night the Tigers' offense proved to be particularly futile -- especially during the third quarter -- as top-seeded Farmington ended Central's year with a 54-47 victory in the Class 4A, District 1 Tournament opener at the Farmington Civic Center.

Farmington, which improved to 20-5, advances into Thursday night's championship game of the four-team district. The Knights will play second-seeded Poplar Bluff.

Central, seeded last, finishes with a 7-17 record.

"We didn't shoot the ball well. That's my personal view," said Central coach Brett Reutzel. "We couldn't put the ball in the hole, and I thought we had some nice looks. We pretty much all struggled shooting the ball.

"But give Farmington credit. They're big and physical and they made it tough on us."

The Tigers, after struggling early in the season, had shown steady improvement over the second half of the year and Reutzel was hopeful that his team could reverse a 19-point loss to Farmington early in the campaign.

That would have had a better chance of happening if the Tigers could have done just a bit more in the third quarter. Central scored only two points in the period -- and that basket came in the final minute -- as the Knights stretched a 25-23 halftime lead to 33-25.

"We talked about the first two minutes of the third quarter being very important," Reutzel said. "But I think we had a couple of turnovers right off the bat. That quarter really hurt us."

Danny Allen and Ben Durbin each scored 15 points to lead the Knights. Ronnie Lashley, Farmington's leading scorer on the season at more than 18 points per game, added 13.

"We didn't play great by any means," said Farmington coach Justin Callahan. "I think if we had shot better, maybe we could have put them away. But they (Central) didn't shoot well either."

T.J. Erlacker paced the Tigers with 17 points, but no other Central player scored more than eight.

Central played from behind virtually the entire night after Farmington scored the game's first four points.

Erlacker was Central's entire offense in the opening period as he scored all of his team's eight points. And his two free throws with 46 seconds left in the quarter gave the Tigers an 8-7 lead -- their only advantage of the contest.

Farmington quickly went ahead 10-8 at the outset of the second quarter on Lashley's three-point play. Central forged a 10-10 tie, but the Knights scored the next six points to go up 16-10 and they never lost the lead.

The Tigers pulled to within 25-23 by the intermission, but then came the decisive third quarter that saw Central go scoreless for 7:20. The Knights also didn't shine offensively in the period, but their 8-2 edge was enough to build a commanding 33-25 advantage.

Central got to within five points three times in a much more high-scoring final quarter, but that was it. Farmington managed to do just enough to ward off the Tigers and the Knights iced the victory from the free-throw line.