After the trophy was raised and the photos were taken, Al Young would not be denied. He immediately walked over and snatched the first-place plaque from a teammate and tucked it against his chest. He'd been working for this for a long time.
To make things even sweeter, it came against arch rival and No. 1 seed Jackson, as second-seeded Cape Central survived a thrilling Southeast Missourian Christmas Tournament championship to win 46-44 on Wednesday night at the Show Me Center.
In a game that was never separated by more than six points, Central's Austin Parker fouled Indian Pete Lake on a 3-pointer with 3 seconds remaining and the Tigers ahead 46-44. Lake had an opportunity to tie or take his team into the lead, but missed all three shots, setting off a Cape Central celebration as the final horn sounded.
"Yeah, it feels good," said Young. "When I was a freshman, I said, 'I want to win the Christmas Tournament. That's the only thing I want to win.' It happened."
Young was held to a tournament-low 10 points against Jackson, but was named to the All-Tournament team after leading all scorers with 88 points over the four-day event, averaging 22 points per game. This was the third time Young had played for the Christmas Tournament title, but his first success.
It was the first Christmas Tournament win for the Tigers since 1996, and their first under 10th-year head coach Drew Church, who has led his program to the event final three times -- 2009, 2012 and 2013 -- without finishing on top.
It is the second year in a row that Jackson fell by two points in the championship. In 2013 it defeated the rival Tigers.
The two teams also met earlier this season in the SEMO Conference Tournament, where Central prevailed 51-43.
On Wednesday night, there was little separating the two sides. A two-point game at halftime was stretched to four points at the end of the third when Al Young got the ball in the bucket with 27 seconds remaining to go up 37-33.
Central (7-4) took its largest lead of the game with 5:26 remaining, when a pair of free throws from Blake Harris put the Tigers on top 41-35.
Jackson (6-6) closed that gap thanks to shots from Jacob Smith and Cameron Hester, pulling within three, but Young slipped under the hoop along the baseline and laid the ball in to hold on to a five-point edge inside the final minute.
But with 25 seconds to play, Smith drove down the left side and slid the ball in to keep Jackson within a possession. Central's Jawone Newell managed just one of two free throws on the other end, and Garrett Walker gave the Indians hope when he drained a contested 3 from the top of the arc to cut the deficit to one, 45-44, with just 11 ticks on the clock.
Cape Central again fell short at the free-throw line when Parker made only 1 of 2, keeping the difference at two points and providing a window of opportunity for the Indians.
That hope was never higher than seconds later, when Lake spotted up for a 3 and rolled the ball off his fingers in front of an on-rushing Parker, who blocked the shot but was whistled for contact and sent Lake to the line for three free throws.
The first one clanked off the rim, and the Jackson sophomore couldn't recover and force overtime.
"We used Christian Laetner for an example," Jackson coach Darrin Scott said of his postgame talk with Lake. "He missed a big one-and-one his freshman year and cost his team the game, and he went on to be known as the most clutch player in college basketball. One play doesn't define you as a player. He's going to get a lot of opportunities to be in that position -- to make a shot or make free throws -- so he can learn from this just like anything else. It's one game and one play.
"I was proud of our effort. We competed hard and we had a lot of chances. Offensively we were struggling and tried to make plays. I thought we were taking charges -- I think we took three or four. We were committed to taking charges, so that was nice to see. As the year goes on we're getting better, so we just need to focus on that and keep getting better."
Smith paced the Indians with 15 points. He finished second among the tournament's overall scoring leaders behind Young, posting 85, and was an All-Tournament selection. Walker pitched in 12 points for Jackson.
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Wednesday night there were flashes of the Jackson offense that was averaging 73.3 points entering the championship, but the Indians found points harder to come by, especially as some key players got into foul trouble.
"It's kind of like a catch 22," Scott said of his team's offensive performance. "A few times I thought we had a good look in rhythm, we didn't take it and then we forced something later. Part of that comes from, I think, confidence. I thought we executed some things tonight to get guys the ball where we wanted them in certain spots. So we've just got to learn and grow, and next time we're in those situations we can make a better play."
Parker was Central's top scorer, with 13. He was also critical in his matchup with Jackson big man Cameron Hester. The athletic sophomore was able to drag the 6-foot-7 Hester out to the perimeter defensively, opening up the lane for others or for his own dribble-drive. On the other end, he was critical in holding Hester to just four points on the night.
"Austin can take it off the dribble a little bit," Cape Central coach Drew Church said. "There were times we moved Al inside and Austin outside, just to get Hester off the lane, so it was a little easier to get to the rim. But I thought Austin did a heck of a job defensively on [Hester] also. ... Every shot he took was tough."
The Tigers managed to win the tournament despite playing without one starter (Kway'Chon Chisom is currently not with the team) and with its standout senior Young being held down in the final. Somehow, Central still found a way to win.
"It took a team effort," Young. "Everyone stepped up and we didn't depend on one person. And we just played really good defense."
His coach's assessment was similar.
"Guts," Church said. "We don't have much varsity experience. I've got one guy out there who's played varsity basketball, and that's Al. He was a rock all tournament, but we just had guts. They battled, they guarded well, they rebounded even though they were undersized, and they deserve it.
"I just want them to see that good things happen if you bust your tail. And they have. They're coachable; they're great kids to be around; they listen; they play extremely hard. Even though we're not supremely athletic or big and strong, if you play hard good things will happen."
There was little separating the two rivals in the first half of play. Back-to-back buckets from Parker gave Cape Central a 6-3 lead just over two minutes in, but a jumper from the block by Stephen Irons put the Indians 7-6.
And so it went, until Parker put the ball in the basket again with 1:50 left in the period to give the Tigers a 10-9 edge. That held into the second quarter.
Jackson went back on top at 7:01 of the second thanks to a 3-pointer from Jacob Friess, and again the see-saw was in motion. The lead was at its biggest when Jackson pushed its advantage to 19-15 at 3:29 when Friess drove the baseline, got the bucket and drew the foul for a conventional three-point play.
That lead disappeared in less than a minute, with Harris scoring a putback for the Tigers and Zyshon Mallory sinking a short floater in the lane to go 19-all.
Thirty-three seconds later a steal by Mallory set up split free throws by Parker to put Central up 20-19.
Jackson pushed back and went on top, 23-22, thanks to Smith with a minute left until half, but Tevyn Wright-Hunt hit a long 3 with 32 ticks left to send the Tigers to the locker room with a two-point advantage, 25-23.
Cape Central 10 15 12 9 -- 46
Jackson 9 14 10 11 -- 44
CAPE CENTRAL (46) -- Austin Parker 13, Al Young 10, Jawone Newell 9, Zyshon Mallory 6, Tevyn Wright-Hunt 4, Blake Harris 4. FG 14, FT 17-30, F 20. (3-pointers: Wright-Hunt. Fouled out: None.)
JACKSON (44) -- Jacob Smith 15, Garrett Walker 12, Jacob Friess 8, Cameron Hester 4, Pete Lake 3, Stephen Irons 2. FG 12, FT 14-21, F 23. (3-pointers: Walker 2, Friess, Lake. Fouled out: Smith.)
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