TIGERS WIN 8TH IN A ROW

Cape Girardeau Central High's boys basketball team had already proven itself against the best Southeast Missouri had to offer by beating Charleston on its way to the University High Christmas Tournament championship.

Tuesday night, the Tigers proved themselves against one of the best from Southern Illinois as they held off Carbondale 67-61 in the Tiger Field House.

Central, the area's hottest team, improved to 9-2 after winning for the eighth time in a row. Carbondale fell to 5-4.

"They play good basketball in Southern Illinois and it's always good to get a different look against teams from outside the area," said Central coach Brett Reutzel.

The Terriers played without senior Joshua Cross, who has already signed a letter of intent with Southern Illinois University. Cross was sitting out a one-game suspension for missing several practices as he went on vacation with his family over the Christmas break.

"It's just a rule we have about missing practices so we suspended him for this game, but he'll be back Friday night," said Carbondale coach DeWayne Kelly, who had plenty of praise for the Tigers. "We didn't get beat by a bad team. There is a reason why they're 9-2. They play hard, they play together and they have a great player who they can go to."

The player Kelly was referring to is guard Nathan Owen, who continued to scorch the nets with 31 points, 19 coming in the first half. Owen, like Cross, will be playing Division I basketball next year. The Central senior signed early with Southeast Missouri State University.

Lavelle Lewis added 13 points for the Tigers while Marcus Lowe and Chris Bergerson contributed nine and eight points, respectively.

Carbondale got 14 points from both Billy Harris and Alfie Campbell. Tim Rose had 12 while Hector Flores added 10 and smooth point guard Ryan Thomas contributed nine.

"They're a very good basketball team and they were playing without one of their better players," Reutzel said. "I wish they would have had him. You never know how it would have turned out.

"They're big and athletic and they shoot the basketball well. I thought we had some opportunities to put them away, but we didn't do it."

Central, after falling behind 16-7 in the first quarter, rallied for a 19-18 lead by the end of the period and they stayed ahead for all but a few moments the rest of the way.

Carbondale briefly regained the lead at 20-19 to start the second quarter, but Owen's driving basket put the Tigers ahead for good at 21-20.

The Tigers opened up 39-29 halftime lead when Owen bombed in a 23-footer just two seconds before the first-half buzzer.

Central appeared poised for a blowout when Lewis scored inside early in the third quarter to give the Tigers their biggest lead of the night at 43-31.

But Carbondale refused to fold. Despite trailing 56-45 entering the final period, the Terriers pulled to within 56-52 with 5:41 left on a Thomas basket and free throw.

Central was able to hold off Carbondale the rest of the way, although the Terriers did get within 65-61 on two Harris free throws with 13 seconds left.

Owen and Lowe both hit one of two foul shots to close out the victory.

"I thought we played hard and competed," Kelly said. "We played well, but not well enough to win. But we're going to get better."

Carbondale won the JV game 52-42 as Central's JV fell to 5-2.

The Tigers will return to action Friday night when Kennett comes to town. Then Saturday afternoon, Central will host Hazelwood Central, a highly regarded team from the St. Louis area.

"It's good we got to play a quality team like Carbondale because we've got some tough opponents coming up," said Reutzel.