Central Rebels and Eureka Wildcats Round Out 64th Annual Gene Steighorst Semis Which Begin Friday

(HILLSBORO) The second-half of quarterfinal play is over-and-done with in the 64th Annual Gene Steighorst Invitational as the Central Rebels and Eureka Wildcats survived and advanced tonight on KREI and KJFF.

The KREI and KJFF game was the first quarterfinal between Central and Seckman in which the Rebels won 68-47. Jaguars senior forward Isaac Hoog made the most of a post-up opportunity toward the end of the 1st half.

Tyce Laubinger added a two-point bucket at the buzzer to send the Rebels into the half up 36-31. Seckman was able to pull within two points early in the 2nd half before Central senior forward Breven McMullen and company began to stretch out the lead.

That put the Rebels up 58-43 in the 4th quarter and they would finish it up with a 21-point victory.

The Central Rebels will now take on Eureka who fought off a feisty DeSoto Dragons team, eventually prevailing 52-41. That action was on KJFF. The turning point of the game came early in the 4th quarter with the Dragons down 41-39.

After the miss, the Eureka Wildcats went on an 11-2 run to close out the game.

The win for the Wildcats puts them and the Central Rebels into the semifinals of the tournament.

The semifinals of the Gene Steighorst Invitational will take place on Friday at Hillsboro High School beginning at 5:30. The first matchup will feature top-seed Hillsboro and 5-seed Windsor followed by 2-seed Central and 3-seed Eureka. All of the action will begin with the Flieg’s Equipment Pregame Show at 5:15 on AM 1400 KJFF.

Central 68 Seckman 47 Full Game