ADVANCE, Mo. -- The Advance boys basketball team remembered how Scott City jumped ahead early a year ago and rode that fast start to a victory. This time around, it decided to do something about it.

The Hornets found themselves in a 17-11 hole after one quarter, but pummeled the Rams with their signature press defense in the second quarter to spark a 21-1 run and vault to a 61-40 victory for a little revenge Tuesday night.

Down by five, Armani Vermillion got to the hoop for a putback at 4:09 of the second period, starting an incredible swing that saw Scott City (4-5) go five minutes without a field goal -- it scored only two in the quarter -- while Advance (9-2) ran wild, feasting on turnovers to completely change the game.

With 33 seconds left before halftime Vermillion completed an old-fashioned three-point play off of a steal at half court, and 13 seconds later it was Austin Ladd putting back a rebound on the fast break to suddenly give the hosts a 15-point advantage.

"I tell you what, they came out and punched us in the mouth early, just like they did last year. We withstood it and picked it up," Advance coach Bubba Wheetley said. "We were struggling a little bit on our press -- they were breaking our press early. We made some adjustments and we picked up the intensity in the second quarter and made a few shots.

"They're very physical and a tough ball club, and I knew that coming in. I didn't know what to expect -- I didn't know how we were going to react, but we stepped up and played pretty good."

Rams guard Trent Pobst got a layup at the buzzer as the teams went into the locker room with Advance up 35-22.

Scott City never recovered from the second-quarter blitz.

"We've been fine coming out, it's just we don't respond when people make a run at us," Scott City head coach Mark Dannenmueller said. "I don't know the answer. I wish I knew.

"Turnovers. Just turnovers. We turned the ball over too much. The story of the game. Not much else to it."

Vermillion had a big game for the Hornets, posting a game-high 19 points along with five assists and five steals. He was 6 of 12 from the field and 6 of 7 from the free-throw line.

"Armani came to play tonight, and they all did," Wheetley said. "Armani can do so much handling the ball and breaking down defenses, and I thought he did that tonight."

Ladd added 16 points for Advance, which was 23 of 50 from the field and 11 of 13 from the charity stripe.

Scott City was paced by Pobst, who finished with 11 points. Jordan Kluesner pitched in with seven points for the visitors, who were 15 of 42 from the field.

The Rams played well coming out of the gate, moving the ball efficiently to open up shots and knock them down. Pobst drove to the basket midway through the first quarter to double up the home side, 8-4, and Scott City followed that with a 9-5 run that was finished off by Braden Cox with 21 seconds on the clock to go up 17-11.

But the Advance press defense that was mostly MIA through the first eight minutes roared to life, and the Rams were left chasing the rest of the game.

"We talk to them all year about how if we're going to make it back to state it's going to be because of our press and our half-court defense," Wheetley said. "And our rebounding. I challenged them to out-rebound Scott City, and we did, and that says a lot."

Scott City pulled as close as 10 points in the third quarter when Kluesner drained a 3 with 4:39 left, and in the ensuing timeout Dannenmueller preached to his team to simplify its focus to each stop and each bucket. But the visitors couldn't consistently make either, and out of that timeout Advance's Dawson Mayo got a basket and a foul with a drive out of the high post, and he made his free throw for a 40-27 edge.

Preston Wuebker made his first basket of the night when he sank a triple from the top left corner less than two minutes later, and Ladd cut off a screen and took a pass from Mayo to put Advance up by 17, 47-30, late in the period.

The game was momentarily delayed when a player collision knocked over the water cooler on the Scott City bench, but the ensuing icy spill and 10-minute cleanup process did little to cool off the Hornets.

Ladd put an exclamation point on Advance's lead when he dunked a ball at the rim from Vermillion on the fast break, putting the Hornets up by 21 with 5:45 left to play.

That gap only grew, reaching its largest point when Michael Hood came off the bench, was fouled after a steal and knocked down a pair of free throws to make things 61-37 -- a 24-point differential -- with 1:10 to go.

"It's another step forward," Wheetley said. "I've been talking to them about getting more consistent. We've got to beat these teams. *... We can either accept splitting -- like with Bloomfield -- but I want to beat them twice. We've got to get more consistent, and I think we took a step forward tonight."

Scott City 17 5 8 10 -- 40

Advance 11 24 12 14 -- 61

SCOTT CITY (40) -- Dylan Keller 3, Trent Pobst 11, Isiah Berry 2, Jordan Kluesner 7, Braden Cox 6, Jaden Kaiser 3, Ty Withong 3, David Smith 5. (3-pointers: Keller, Kluesner, Kaiser, Smith. Fouled out: None.)

ADVANCE (61) -- Austin Ladd 16, Brian Whitson 3, Armani Vermillion 19, Preston Wuebker 5, Dawson Mayo 9, Dakota Welty 7, Michael Hood 2. (3-pointers: Whitson, Vermillion, Wuebker, Welty. Fouled out: None.)