TIGERS WEATHER EAGLES' LATE RALLY

Things got a bit too close for comfort late, but Cape Girardeau Central High boys basketball coach Brett Reutzel wasn't about to complain.

Reutzel was more than happy to pocket a 45-41 victory over visiting New Madrid County Central Friday night.

"It got a bit too hairy there at the end," said Reutzel with a smile. "But we've played several close games like this that we've lost, so it's nice to win one of them.

"And any time you beat a team coached by Lennies McFerren, you've got to feel good. I have a tremendous amount of respect for coach McFerren. His teams will always play hard and execute well."

The Tigers improved to 6-7 while the Eagles fell to 3-8.

Central's Ross Conner led all scorers with 16 points, 10 coming in the second half. Kelly Illers had 10 points, nine coming in the first half. Eric Wessel scored all eight of his points in the second half.

Vest Baker paced New Madrid with 13 points and Byron Minner added 10.

It looked like things might be easy for the Tigers when they opened up a 40-29 lead early in the fourth quarter as Wessel bombed home a long 3-pointer.

But Central then went scoreless for nearly four minutes and New Madrid used a 10-0 run to make things mighty interesting. Baker's driving shot with 2:40 left pulled the Eagles to within 40-37 and Minner scored after one of several late Central turnovers to make it 40-39 at the 2:18 mark.

Conner scored inside with 1:37 remaining to put the Tigers ahead 42-39. Illers missed the front end of a one-and-one free-throw opportunity with 30 seconds left and Demarcus Hamilton scored with 11 seconds left to pull the Eagles back to within one at 42-41.

Nick Swoboda hit a free throw with 6.4 seconds remaining for a 43-41 Central lead. New Madrid got the rebound on the second miss, but Donnie McClinton came up with an immediate steal. Conner then hit two foul shots with eight-tenths of a second left to ice the victory.

"Their pressure got to us late, but we handled it just well enough to win. And we made just enough free throws to win," Reutzel said.

Said McFerren, "Our guys really played hard and left it all out on the floor. They definitely played hard enough to win this game."

The game was close early, with the lead changing hands several times before the Eagles held a 12-11 edge after one quarter.

New Madrid opened up an 18-15 lead midway through the second period but Central scored the final 10 points of the quarter to go up 25-18 at halftime. Jason Roddy came off the bench to score Central's last four points of the half.

Wessel's follow shot with two seconds left in the third quarter gave the Tigers a 36-26 lead heading into the final period. Then Central was able to hang on down the stretch.

Central will return to action today when Vianney comes to town for a 5:30 p.m. game as part of the Tiger Shootout.

Other boys games in the shootout are Notre Dame vs. Portageville at 2:30 and Jackson vs. Oakville at 4. There will be one girls game, with Central facing Rosary at 1.

"It should be a great day of basketball," Reutzel said.