Central Christmas Tournament Day 2 Recap, Day 3 Preview

The first round of the boys Central Christmas Tournament wrapped up Thursday night on J-98. The Ste. Genevieve Dragons beat the Perryville Pirates 80-68. Chad Donze led the way for the Dragons with 27 points and five 3-pointers.

Dragons head coach Rob Coleman said Donze and others have found a nice shooting rhythm this season.

Ste. Genevieve is now 7-2 after the win, while Perryville fell to 5-5. The Dragons will face the Hillsboro Hawks in the quarterfinals at 7 p.m. Friday night on J-98. Head coach Dan Johnson of the Hawks says the Dragons are going to be coached up and prepared.

The Pirates will play the Herculaneum Blackcats in the consolation bracket Friday morning.

Next the #3 South Iron Panthers beat the #14 Arcardia Valley Tigers 82 to 30 in the second to last game of the opening round. The Panthers took a 25-4 lead through one quarter of play utilizing some quick ball movement.

From there South Iron would cruise to victory with a balanced offensive attack as all 5 starters for the Panthers ended with double figure scoring totals. After the game head coach Dusty Dinkins said it’s a real shot in the arm having so many players they can rely on for points.

In the final game of the night, the 11th-seeded Fredericktown Blackcats upset the sixth-seeded Potosi Trojans 71-68. Fredericktown worked to a double-digit lead in the first half, but the Trojans fought back to only trail by three points at halftime. Late in the fourth, the Blackcats eventually got the upper hand.

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Grant Shankle led the Blackcats with 22 points while Potosi’s Noah Jacobsen also had 22. Blackcats head coach Joaby Sikes said his team’s experience helped close out the victory.

Fredericktown improved to 7-3 with the win while Potosi dropped to 4-5. The Blackcats will draw South Iron tonight (Friday) in the quarterfinal round at 8:30 p.m. on J-98, while the Trojans will face Arcadia Valley in the consolation ladder Friday morning.

Prior to the Boys Quarterfinals the Girls will play their semi final round on AM 800 KREI. The action begins with top-seed Central and 5-seed Arcadia Valley matching up in the semis for the 2nd year in a row. The Rebels won the last time 70-52 on their way to a 5th consecutive tournament championship. Stan Whited and the Tigers are looking for a bit of revenge and believe a better rebounding effort might do the trick.

It’ll be business as usual for Josh Mapes and the Rebels who have played pleasantly well this season despite losing a major piece of the offense in the offseason in Kimmy Wallen.

Central and Arcadia Valley tip-off at 1.

The 2nd semifinal features 2-seed South Iron and 6-seed Ste Genevieve. The Lady Dragons pulled out a 56-55 overtime victory over Festus on Wednesday to advance to the semis. Head coach Jordanna Walk-Robison hopes that that dramatic win will carry over into the match versus South Iron.

Lady Panthers head coach Lawrence Graves says a win over the Dragons boils down to controlling the pace and crashing the glass effectively.

South Iron and Ste Gen. will tip-off after the Central and Arcadia Valley game concludes, which should be around 2:30.

The Boys Quarterfinals follow beginning with St. Francois County rivals Farmington and North County meet for the first quarterfinal of the day on AM 800 KREI. Raiders head coach Jimmy Palmer expects his players to bring it.

Knights head coach Terry Noble knows the Raiders will come out with energy and says that his guys need to do the same.

Top-seed Farmington and 8-seed North County are scheduled to tip-off today (Friday) at 4 on KREI. Then our coverage will swith to J98 where the #4 Festus Tigers play the #5 Central Rebels. The Tigers beat the Rebels 73-49 in Central’s second game of the season. Head coach of the 6-3 Rebels Adam Barton says his team was caught a bit off guard by the impressive play of some of the Tigers.