Farmington, Festus, Hillsboro, and South Iron Punch Tickets to Central Christmas Tournament Semis

(PARK HILLS) With a field of 16 whittled down to 8, the Central Christmas Tournament Boys Bracket continued Friday night with the quarterfinal round on Regional Radio.

In game one the #1 Farmington Knights shut down the #8 North County Raiders 59-34. The Knights took a 45-26 advantage in the third when Tycen Gray beat the buzzer from downtown.

 
After the game head coach of the Knights Terry Noble says that they adjusted to North County’s strong first quarter defense by getting the ball inside more.

 
In game 2 the #4 Festus Tigers edged out the #5 Central Rebels 64-60. In a two-point game, Kobe Branscomb secured a rebound after a Central missed free throw, and hit two clutch ones himself to secure the victory.

 
After the game, head coach Jason Therrell said his guys responded well to a bit of an unlucky first quarter.

 
It’ll be Farmington and Festus in the first semifinal game, which will be tonight (Saturday) at 6 on J98.

The third quarterfinal game had 2-seed Hillsboro holding a slim 29-26 halftime lead over 7-seed Ste Genevieve before winning 67-51. The Hawks pulled away in the third quarter by outscoring the Dragons 20-10 and feeding Michael Brewer down low.

 
Brewer ended the night with 24 points, including 16 in the 3rd. Hawks head coach Dan Johnson decided that giving the ball more to Brewer in the 2nd half would give his side the best chance of winning.

 
Hillsboro improves to 8-3 with the win while Ste Genevieve falls to 7-3.

In the last boys quarterfinal of the night, the third-seeded South Iron Panthers earned an 81-57 victory over the 11th-seeded Fredericktown Blackcats. Sophomore Brock Wakefield led all scorers with 27 points and also played well as a distributor.

 
Panthers head coach Dusty Dinkins said his team showed resiliency when the Blackcats started to make a run in the fourth quarter.

 
South Iron remains undefeated at 10-0 while Fredericktown drops to 7-4. The Blackcats will meet Ste. Genevieve in the fifth-place bracket at 4:30 p.m. and the Panthers move on to face Hillsboro in the boys semifinals at 7:30 p.m. Saturday night on J-98.

J-98’s coverage will begin at 5:45 p.m. with the Flieg’s Equipment Pregame Show.