Cape Central triumphs in tense battle against Jefferson City

In a rare matchup with a faraway foe, the Cape Central Tigers defeated the Jefferson City Jays 44-34 on Saturday, Feb. 1, at Cape Central High School,

While the game went by quicker than usual and was a low-scoring affair, the Tigers' victory over the Class 5 runner-up was a stressful one.

"We needed a matchup like this," Cape Central head coach Lamont Frazier said.

The Tigers established a 16-4 lead in the first quarter, thanks to 12 of those points coming from TySeanDre Edwards, who finished the game with a team-high 19 points.

Antonio Sims and Goliath Morris-Young each scored eight points, Matayo Rivers added seven and Mar'K Mills chipped in two points for the Tigers.

"The guys are just playing the roles and making them better, and that's the easiest way I can sum up what happened tonight because if guys are doing that, each night is going to be somebody different," Fraizer said. On a different night, it could be someone else. I can't predict that, nor do I care, as long as we're doing the things that we need to do in order to give ourselves a chance to win."

The Tigers held the Jays to 12 points in the first half to enter halftime leading 30-12. It was an otherwise seemingly comfortable lead that turned out to be anything but in the second half.

The Tigers were only able to score 14 points throughout the second half, while the Jays were on their tail with that many points in the third quarter and eight more in the fourth quarter.

The Tigers' spotty shooting at the charity stripe added to the stress in the fourth quarter, making only 4-of-14 free throws. Rivers and Edwards each scored three points fourth quarter to help Cape Central maintain its lead in the final minutes.

"We missed some breaks but we made some breaks tonight, and I think that that was probably the biggest thing," Fraizer said, "because in the last 10 minutes of the game, we were not as sharp as we needed to be. But it's one of those things you have to deal with what's in the moment and what was in the moment was we knew they were going to come after us, and we had to put ourselves in a situation where we could get to the free throw line and and hopefully that would help determine our outcome."

Jordan Martin and Judah Harris each scored 12 points for the Jays (13-4). Martin, an Arkansas baseball commit and one of Jefferson City's top scorers, was held to only four points in the second half.

"I thought we did a great job on Martin, who's a really good player," Fraizer said. "He's a player that's been averaging a double-double pretty much all year long, and for us to even have a chance to contend with him and play against a player like that, credit to our guys, but also credit to him the way he's played over the last three years for us to have to give him that much attention."

Cape Central (14-4) travel to Christian Brothers College on Tuesday, Feb. 4, before taking on Principia in the Charleston 8-Man Shootout on Feb. 8.