Cape Central locks down Woodland to earn trip to Southeast Missourian Christmas Tourney finals

Cape Central doesn't just hope to get to the Southeast Missourian Christmas Tournament finals each year. It expects it.

The Tigers played with that attitude, and then some, rolling past No. 6 seed Woodland 71-56 in the tournament semifinals on Saturday night at the Show Me Center to advance to the championship final against top-seeded Jackson.

“We just play hard, play together as a team, and then just find a rhythm and go from there,” said senior Mar’K Mills, who dropped a team-high 17 points. “We just talk to each other and go out there and play hard. As one of the leaders on the team, I’ve just got go out there and do my thing, let the rest of the guys do their thing.”

With Mills’ hot-shooting and junior TySeanDre’ Edwards doing major damage in the middle, the Tigers presented too much firepower to let anyone on the Cardinals slow them down. Sophomore Goliath Morris-Young and senior Matayo Rivers also provided pivotal sparks, scoring 13 and 10, respectively.

Ignited by a Mills corner 3, the Tigers used a 14-2 run over the last three minutes of the first half to take full control and jump out front 41-24. Rivers capped things off with an emphatic buzzer-beater 3-pointer to send his teammates and fans into a frenzy as they hustled into the locker room.

Cape Central (7-3) then proceeded to build a 25-point lead by the end of the third quarter. Edwards, who dropped 13 points, sealed things when he got loose on a breakaway to the basket and threw up a loud slam dunk with 6:50 left to play. The powerful 6-foot-7 junior sat for a moment on the court, fist clenched in celebration.

Senior Jefferson Walling’s 3-pointer with 1:15 left put the nail in the coffin for the Tigers, who are now one win away from claiming their third straight tournament title.

Korbin Kinder had a game-high 25 points, while teammate Lane Lee tallied 20 to lead Woodland (8-1) — a small-school darling that saw its perfect regular-season record come to an end after aiming for its first tournament finals appearance since 1976. The rest of the Cardinals roster combined for just 11 points.

Cape Central takes its show to Monday night when the second-seeded Tigers play Jackson in the Southeast Missourian Christmas Tournament finals at 7:30 p.m. Cape Central took down the Indians 60-53 in the SEMO Conference Tournament semifinals two weeks ago.

“We should be No. 1 right now,” Mills said of his team’s seed. “The key is to just play hard, and we're gonna see what the results are. That's pretty much it.”