Tourney action continues today

Year after year, coaches repeat the same goal for their team at the Southeast Missourian Christmas Tournament: Make Day 4.

Whether a team is falls into the loser's bracket or is competing for the title, the goal is to be on the court for championship night.

Eight of the remaining 12 teams in the 16-team field will accomplish that today when the tournament resumes at the Show Me Center.

Play will begin at noon with a consolation semifinal between No. 9 Oran and No. 13. Kelly. The Hawks pulled off a mild upset of No. 12 Leopold to advance to Day 3. Oran defeated No. 16 Delta to move on.

"I've watched them play a few times. They're going to play hard, they're well coached and they've got several different kids that can play," Oran coach Joe Shoemaker said of Kelly. "They did a lot of pressing and stuff [Saturday], so we'll have to improve and not turn the ball over to have a chance to beat them."

The other consolation semifinal will begin at 1:30 p.m. feature No. 10 Meadow Heights against No. 11 Bell City, who defeated Oak Ridge in the quarterfinal round.

"We know Monday's going to be really tough," said Meadow Heights coach Mark Verticchio following his team's win over Chaffee on Saturday. "But you just go play hard and hopefully something positive comes out of it."

Eighth-seeded Scott City will take on Class 3 District 2 foe and fifth-seeded Charleston in a fifth-place semifinal at 3 p.m. followed by seventh-seeded Advance and sixth-seeded Woodland in a fifth-place semifinal at 4:30 p.m.

"I told them after the game, 'Hey, this game's behind us now. Let's build on this and get ready for this game right here,'" Advance coach Bubba Wheetley said following a loss to Central on Saturday. "This is the one we want right now, and it's going to be just as tough."

Top seed Jackson will take on No. 4 Scott County Central in the first championship semifinal at 6 p.m. Jackson advanced with a win over Scott City while SCC came from behind to beat Charleston.

The Indians defeated SCC 72-45 in a semifinal last year.

No. 2 Central and No. 3 Notre Dame will face off in the nightcap at 7:30 p.m. The teams played at the SEMO Conference Tournament earlier this month, when Central came away with a three-point victory.

While Days 1 and 2 are split into two sessions with two admissions, today features a single session. Tickets cost $4 each.

Complete coverage of the event, including live updates, photo gallery, a story about each game and more, can be found at semoball.com/christmas14.