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January 2008
Rivals take the spotlight to end first week of '08
New 1.3.08
Charleston vs. Sikeston. Scott City vs. Chaffee. Neelyville vs. Naylor.
It's a good week for high school basketball fans looking for a rivalry when teams across the region return from a short holiday break this week.
Sikeston and Charleston, which rank No. 1 and No. 4 in the SemoSportsWeb Top 25, top the list of games on a big calendar of events Friday. The teams are a combined 19-5 heading into their only encounter of the season; they missed a chance at meeting in the SEMO Conference Tournament in early December when Sikeston lost a semifinal. Charleston won the tournament.
Ranked teams also go head-to-head when No. 23 Portageville goes to No. 7 Scott County Central in a showdown of two state hall of fame coaches — Portageville's Jim Bidewell and Central's Ronnie Cookson.
Also Friday, Scott City plays at Chaffee in the first boys sports event between the schools since Chaffee surprised the Rams 21-19 in a football game Sept. 28.
Other games Friday feature a pair of Ozark Foothills Conference rivalries: Doniphan at Twin Rivers, and Neelyville at Naylor. In the MAAA, Fredericktown goes to Park Hills Central, and Farmington hosts Ste. Genevieve.
Another rivalry this week is Saturday when Three Rivers Community College hosts Mineral Area College in a men's and women's twin bill.
Top 25 teams face off in four-game Tiger Shootout
New 1.5.08
A matchup between Notre Dame and Farmington highlights a four-game schedule in Saturday's Tiger Shootout, an annual one-day boys basketball event at Cape Girardeau Central.
Notre Dame, No. 3 in the SemoSportsWeb Top 25, faces No. 20 Farmington at 1:30 p.m. in the second game of the day. Both head into the game coming off wins: Farmington defeated Ste. Genevieve on Friday, and Notre Dame won Thursday against Dexter.
Saturday's other games feature No. 25 Saxony Lutheran vs. East Prairie at noon, No. 2 Jackson vs. Parkway South at 3 p.m., and Central against Metro Academy at 4:30.
Southeast chases record start against Racers
New 1.6.08
Southeast will try to match its best-ever men's basketball start in the Ohio Valley Conference when the team hosts Murray State on Monday.
The Redhawks (11-5) take a league-best 6-0 league record into the 7:30 p.m. game; a win would tie Southeast's 7-0 league mark set in 1999.
Murray State, 6-7 overall and fourth in the OVC at 3-3, goes to the Show Me Center after its four-point win Saturday against Tennessee Tech stopped a four-game losing streak. Southeast has won seven of its last eight games, including Saturday at Eastern Illinois.
The teams will play again Jan. 26 at Murray.
Racers KO Redhawks for first OVC defeat
New 1.7.08
Southeast's OVC winning streak didn't just end. It ended with a thud.
Southeast fell out of the Ohio Valley Conference men's basketball lead Monday with a 79-51 loss to Murray State at the Show Me Center. The Redhawks (11-6 overall, 6-1 in the OVC) went into the game chasing a 7-0 conference record for just the second time as an OVC member, but the Redhawks fell behind 37-27 by halftime and couldn't recover. Southeast's next game is Saturday at Austin Peay, which slid to the top of the OVC heap Monday with a 5-0 mark.
Murray State, fourth in the OVC, is 7-7 overall and 4-3 in the league.
TRCC men drop to 15th in national poll
New 1.7.08
Three Rivers Community College dropped to a 15th-place tie in the NJCAA Division I national men's basketball rankings this week.
The Raiders (12-3) were sixth in the previous rankings Dec. 11 but lost twice in a late-December tournament in Florida, first to No. 1 Chipola, then to unranked Pensacola.
In the women's poll, Jefferson College is 16-1 and No. 8, up from No. 12 in the previous ranking.
No. 8 Thayer squeeks to 13-0 with win at Eminence
New 1.9.08
Thayer raced through its regular-season football schedule without a loss. Now the Bobcats are on course to do the same on the basketball court.
Thayer (13-0) remained one of the last two unbeaten boys basketball teams in the SemoSportsWeb Top 25 on Tuesday with a 53-51 win over Eminence. The game was a rematch of Thayer's 44-41 win in the Cabool Holiday Invitational championship Dec. 29; Thayer sits at No. 8 in the Top 25, three spots ahead of Eminence.
Blake Horton, Michael Lowther and Lance Schneider each had 11 points for Thayer, which faces a test Friday at Willow Springs (12-2).
Tuesday's other games featured an upset among the top five when No. 5 Charleston lost 52-47 at New Madrid County Central.
Brookins resigns as Central football coach
New 1.10.08
Lawrence Brookins has resigned as Cape Girardeau Central's head football coach, the school announced Thursday.
Brookins' Tigers reached the playoffs five times in nine seasons and reached the quarterfinal round once, but Central finished 2-8 last season, and the program has finished below .500 the past four seasons.
Brookins will remain the school's track and field coach. The school has already begun the search for his football replacement.
Jackson, Notre Dame meet in holiday rematch
New 1.10.08
Notre Dame will try to even its season series with Jackson on Friday in a matchup of two top-five boys basketball teams.
The No. 2 Bulldogs (9-5) and No. 3 Indians (10-5) played to an eight-point finish on Dec. 28 at the Show Me Center, which Jackson won 61-53. They play today following a 6 p.m. junior varsity opener.
Other SemoSportsWeb Top 25 matchups Friday feature Festus at Crystal City, Scott County Central at Charleston, and Scott City at Sikeston.
Big finishes lift Jackson, Scott Co. Central, Crystal City
New 1.12.08
Jackson and Crystal City each needed a big fourth-quarter push. Scott County Central didn't wait that long.
All three teams gained big wins Friday in Top 25 matchups: No. 3 Jackson won 65-63 at home against No. 2 Notre Dame; No. 7 Scott County Central won 75-70 at No. 5 Charleston; and No. 13 Crystal City defeated No. 18 Festus 54-48 at Crystal City.
At Notre Dame, Jake Leet scored with 8 seconds left to break a tie and give Jackson (11-5) its second win over Notre Dame (9-6) in two weeks. Leet finished with 27 points.
At Charleston, the visiting Braves (12-2) built a 10-point lead early and led 65-48 in the final five minutes before a run by the Bluejays (10-6) came up short in their third straight loss. Caleb Johnson's 26 points led Scott Central.
At Crystal City, the Hornets (12-1) and rival Festus (7-6) traded big runs through the third and fourth quarters. Crystal City raced out of halftime and outscored Festus 17-5 in the third to take a 13-point lead into the final quarter before Festus rallied to finish short in the fourth. Myles Becquette had 18 points for the Hornets.
Governors keep 'Hawks out of OVC men's lead
New 1.13.08
Southeast dropped out of first place in the Ohio Valley Conference men's basketball standings with a loss to Murray State earlier in the week. On Saturday, Austin Peay made sure the Redhawks didn't get it back.
New league leader Austin Peay took a 13-2 lead early and kept Southeast playing from behind most of the night in an 85-82 Austin Peay win in Clarksville, Tenn. The Governors (11-7 overall, 7-1 in the OVC) lost the lead for the first time in the second half when the Redhawks (11-7, 6-2) went up 60-59. Southeast led by three before giving way to the Govs for good.
The win was the 13th in the past 14 games against Southeast.
Will Bogan led Southeast with 17 points; Jaycen Herring and Marcus Rhodes added 13 each.
Knee injury means Foust is finished at Southeast
New 1.14.08
Brandon Foust's rollercoaster season at Southeast appears to be over.
Foust, a senior and the Redhawks' second-leading scorer, is expected to miss the rest of his final year of eligibility after MRI results Monday revealed severe damage to his right knee. Foust averaged almost 12 points and six rebounds per game during Southeast's 11-7 start. He is expected to face surgery in the next four weeks.
The Oklahoma transfer's season was in jeopardy before the start of practice in October after he was involved in an on-campus altercation and faced suspension. A judicial review allowed Foust to return to classes in October, and Redhawks coach Scott Edgar said after a meeting with Foust that he would return to the team in time for the first game of the season.
Foust is one of three seniors on this year's team, which led the OVC early with a 6-0 league mark. He led the team in scoring last season with 12 points per game.
Two-point loss sends TRCC men out of rankings
New 1.15.08
Three Rivers Community College is out of the national men's basketball poll after a two-point loss Saturday.
The Raiders (14-4) were 15th last week before back-to-back two-point games, first a 69-67 defeat of Moberly on Friday, then a 62-60 loss to State Fair on Saturday. The Raiders are one of four teams that also received votes but finished outside the top 20 list Tuesday.
TRCC will play Saturday at regional rival MSU-West Plains, which is 18-2 and No. 11 nationally.
The women's poll will be released Wednesday.
16 area teams in latest state basketball rankings
New 1.16.08
Ten area boys teams and six girls teams fill spots on the latest high school basketball polls from the Missouri Sportswriters and Sportscasters Association.
Among boys teams, Sikeston (No. 2) and Notre Dame (No. 9) rank among the state's top 10 in Class 4. In Class 3, Charleston is eighth and Scott City ninth; in Class 2, South Iron is No. 1, Thayer No. 4 and Hayti No. 6; and in Class 1, Scott County Central is second, Bell City third and Clarkton seventh.
In the girls polls, Dexter is No. 9 and Notre Dame No. 10 in Class 4; Portageville is third and Arcadia Valley fifth in Class 3; Naylor is No. 5 in Class 2; and Delta ranks sixth in Class 1.
Scott Central, Scott City to meet for tournament championship
New 1.17.08
Scott County Central and Scott City will play for the title of the Scott-Mississippi Conference Tournament on Friday after both won Thursday's boys semifinals.
Scott Central, No. 6 in the SemoSportsWeb Top 25, led by just 14 points at halftime but stretched its lead from there in an 86-59 win over East Prairie. Caleb Johnson's 24 points led the Braves.
No. 20 Scott City defeated Kelly 56-52. Caleb Estes had 15 points for Scott City.
The championship game is at 8:30 p.m. Friday at Delta. Kelly and East Prairie play for third place at 7.
Portageville rallies from 14 down, tops Malden in Top 25
New 1.18.08
One of Portageville's biggest wins of the boys basketball season triggered the start of a losing streak for Malden on Friday.
Portageville, No. 22 in the SemoSportsWeb Top 25, rallied from a 14-point deficit in the first half and held No. 10 Malden to 18 points after halftime in a 57-42 Bootheel Conference win. It was the second loss in a row for Malden (13-4), which fell to Hayti 71-60 on Tuesday. The Green Wave play No. 7 Charleston on Tuesday.
Portageville (9-5) cut the Malden lead to 24-21 at halftime, and the Bulldogs held their biggest lead at the end despite paltry 6-of-19 shooting from the free throw line.
Malden's Nick Perkins led all scorers with 20 points.
The game was among several that featured head-to-head matchups of Top 25 teams. Others included No. 4 Notre Dame over No. 21 Saxony Lutheran 67-50, No. 6 Scott County Central over No. 20 Scott City 68-59 in the finals of the Scott-Mississippi Conference Tournament, and No. 7 Hayti over No. 15 Clarkton 84-71.
At Patton, No. 3 South Iron became the region's first team to reach the 15-win mark with an 81-51 win over host Meadow Heights. David Prater scored 20 points and Will Sutton 16 for South Iron (15-0), which hosts No. 19 Lesterville on Tuesday.
Bluejays' four-game skid ends with win at St. Louis
New 1.18.08
A rare four-game losing streak for defending boys basketball state champion Charleston is over.
The Bluejays darted to an early lead against Metro and were never contested in the second half of a 51-33 win at the St. Louis school Saturday. Charleston, 11-6 and ranked No. 8 in the SemoSportsWeb Top 25, had lost four in a row (to Notre Dame, Scott County Central, New Madrid County Central and Sikeston) before posting its first win of 2008 on Saturday. Metro is 8-7.
Antonio Riggins scored 12 points and was one of nine Charleston players who scored. The Bluejays head into a three-game stretch of home games starting Tuesday against No. 10 Malden, Kennett and No. 2 Jackson.
Three Rivers returns to top 20 after upset win
New 1.22.08
The Three Rivers Community College Raiders weren't out of the national rankings for long.
The Raiders (16-4) are tied at No. 19 in the newest poll released Tuesday, three days after TRCC's 78-73 win against No. 11 MSU-West Plains. The Raiders had been in the top 20 all season before a loss a week earlier.
MSU-West Plains dropped to No. 14 in this week's poll, down from No. 11.
Jackson, Charleston march toward rematch after wins
New 1.22.08
Jackson and Charleston each left their home court with double-figure wins Tuesday, adding new emphasis to their second meeting of the boys basketball season Jan. 29.
Jackson, No. 2 in Southeast Missouri, and Charleston, ranked No. 7, each used big second-half efforts to win. At Jackson, the Indians came alive with hot shooting after halftime to put away No. 1 Sikeston for the second time this season. At Charleston, the Bluejays turned back a fourth-quarter rally by the Green Wave to send Malden to its third straight loss.
Jackson (14-6) and Charleston (12-7) play at Charleston on Tuesday. The teams met once before, when Charleston won 63-56 in the finals of the SEMO Conference Tournament in early December.
MSHSAA's new football alignments released early Friday
New 1.24.08
Coaches and fans have buzzed about it for months, and now the Missouri State High School Activities Association finally will make the state's new football district alignments official.
The state's top high school sports sanctioning body will release the district assignments for the 2008 and 2009 seasons at 9 a.m. Friday. The lists will be posted on the group's Web site.
Class 5 districts are expected to see some of the biggest changes when each district grows to at least five teams, several with six. That means the start of district games in early October for several teams around the state.
Also new for 2008 and '09 will be the number of playoff qualifiers from each district. The top two teams in each district will advance into the first round of the playoffs; in past years, only the winner advanced.
To make room for the extra week of playoff games, games will begin the week of Aug. 29, a week earlier than past years. Practice will start Aug. 11.
New football district assignments show few changes
New 1.25.08
The region's Class 5 and Class 4 schools saw the only changes among new high school football district assignments released Friday by the Missouri State High School Activities Association.
SEMO Conference North teams Jackson and Cape Girardeau Central are back in the same district after spending several seasons in different classes; the two schools join suburban St. Louis schools Eureka and Rockwood Summit in Class 5, District 1.
In Class 4 District 1, new SEMO Conference North member Farmington takes the spot vacated by Central and joins Poplar Bluff and Sikeston of the SEMO North, along with Ozark Conference member West Plains.
Southeast Missouri's Class 1, 2 and 3 districts showed few changes.
The new class assignments are based on new school enrollment figures adjusted every two years by the MSHSAA. The current cycle will affect the 2008 and '09 seasons.
Also new this year is a new system in which the top two teams in each district advance to the first round of the playoffs. In the past, only the district champion advanced.
Edgar suspended for Murray game; SEMO apologizes for comments
New 1.25.08
Southeast officials apologized Friday for comments that led to a one-game suspension of men's basketball coach Scott Edgar.
Edgar made comments critical of officiating during a radio broadcast after SEMO's loss Thursday to Morehead State. The OVC announced Friday that Edgar would be required to miss Saturday's game at Murray State.
Southeast director of athletics Don Kaverman apologized for the comments Friday and said he supported the OVC's decision to suspend Edgar.
"We fully support the OVC policy concerning public criticism of game officials and concur with the actions taken," Kaverman said. "Coach Edgar and I have discussed this situation and he has apologized for his comments."
Saturday's game at Murray State will be broadcast live on ESPN2. After a 6-0 start in the OVC, Southeast has lost five in a row; a loss at home to Murray State began the five-game skid earlier this month.
Jackson climbs to No. 1 in boys rankings
New 1.27.08
Jackson stands as the No. 1 boys basketball team in Southeast Missouri for the first time this season.
The Indians climbed from No. 2 to No. 1 in Monday's SemoSportsWeb Top 25 weekly poll. Jackson (15-6) is the fifth team to occupy the spot this season, joining former No. 1s Scott County Central, Notre Dame, Bell City and Sikeston. Jackson defeated Sikeston by more than 20 points Tuesday to upstage the then-No. 1 Bulldogs.
The rest of this week's top five features undefeated South Iron at No. 2, Sikeston No. 3, Notre Dame at No. 4 and Scott County Central at No. 5.
Three games this week feature head-to-head matchups among top 10 teams: Jackson goes to No. 6 Charleston on Tuesday, Charleston visits No. 8 Doniphan on Friday, and South Iron hosts No. 9 Bell City on Saturday.
Southeast ends OVC slide with 121-116 win over Austin Peay
New 1.29.08
Southeast outscored Austin Peay 20-15 in a high-scoring third overtime to pull out of a six-game losing streak in an OVC men's basketball game Tuesday at the Show Me Center.
The game, which aired on ESPU, knocked Austin Peay (13-9) out of first place in the OVC and into a tie with Murray State; both are 9-3. Southeast is sixth in the OVC at 7-6 and 12-11 overall.
Jaycen Herring scored 29 points and grabbed 12 rebounds for Southeast; Derek Wright scored 43 points for Austin Peay.
TRCC holds at No. 18 in men's national poll
New 1.29.08
The Three Rivers Community College men's basketball is tied with MSU-West Plains at No. 18 in the national junior college men's poll released Tuesday.
TRCC (18-4) holds the same spot as it had a week earlier; MSU-West Plains (20-3) dropped from No. 14 to the 18th-place tie.
Coming off big week, Jackson feels a chill; Salem wins
New 1.29.08
Two steps forward, one step back.
Jackson's season of highs and lows reached another low Tuesday in a 63-48 SEMO Conference loss at Charleston. The No. 1-ranked Indians fell to 15-7. Charleston, ranked No. 6, is 14-7.
Jackson climbed to the top of the Southeast Missouri rankings on Monday, less than a week after a convincing 76-51 win over then-No. 1 Sikeston and a lopsided win Friday over Caruthersville, but the Indians encountered a stout Charleston defense that held Jackson to one of its lowest-scoring games of the season. Brian Parham scored 24 points to lead Charleston; Hunter Grantham had 14 and Jake Leet 13 for Jackson.
The win was Charleston's second this season over Jackson, the first coming in the finals of the SEMO Conference Tournament in early December. But since that win, Charleston is 4-3 in the SEMO Conference heading into a game Friday at No. 8 Doniphan. Jackson is 6-1 in the league and hosts No. 22 Farmington on Friday.
At Salem, the No. 11 Tigers held off state-ranked Willow Springs 74-72 in a South Central Association game that ended in overtime. C.J. Smith scored 21 points for Salem, 15-5 overall and 2-0 in the SCA. Josh Krause had 27 for Willow Springs, 15-4 and 1-1.
Salem hosts No. 7 Thayer on Friday.
Sikeston Bulls' future in limbo; team out of KIT
New 1.30.08
The future of Sikeston's minor-league baseball team is up in the air while it looks for an owner.
The two-year-old franchise already has been replaced in the KIT League by a team in Marion, Ky., while it awaits a potential buyer, and the Sikeston franchise isn't likely to play until a sale is made. A statement on the Bulls' Web site cited "unforseen circumstances" that forced the sale.
The KIT League is a summer wood bat league with four teams from Kentucky (Dawson Springs, Fulton, Marion, Owensboro), one from Tennessee (Union City) and one from Missouri (Farmington). The Bulls finished 17-30 in the league last season.
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