Edwards and Mills lead Cape Central past Jackson 60-52

SIKESTON — Cape Central boys’ basketball picked up a signature win over rival Jackson on Thursday night to make a statement. To flip the script. To prove that first-year coach Lamont Frazier’s program did not go anywhere.

Less experienced? Perhaps.

Terrific? Certainly.

Junior TySeanDre’ Edwards and senior Mar’K Mills led their Tigers to victory after each scoring double figures in Cape Central’s 60-52 win over the Indians in the SEMO Conference Tournament semifinals.

“We came out ready to play,” Edwards said. “We already knew what the job was: to play hard and play together. So, I had to bring the energy to come out ready.”

Eleven months after suffering a 51-49 stinger to Jackson in a regular-season showdown, Cape Central proved a point under the bright lights of the Sikeston High School Field House. Buoyed by Edwards’ 18 points and Mills’ 19, the Tigers were effective in the paint and put on a defensive clinic in the final quarter, forcing a handful of turnovers and holding the Indians to just 11 points.

Edwards noted that they played with an extra edge and were fueled by being seeded second behind Jackson in the upcoming Southeast Missourian Christmas Tournament.

“They said Jackson was No. 1 in the Christmas Tournament,” Edwards said. “We just proved them wrong. We are just trying to prove everybody wrong and take it step by step.”

But the overarching takeaway from Thursday? This was the sort of statement, resume-defining win that Frazier’s squad wanted and needed early on. It was also a great learning curve for a fairly new-look group.

“I think we're learning how to play, and I think we're learning how to play in challenging situations and challenging environments where we're not comfortable as a team,” Frazier said. “I think to be thrown into that fire this time of the year like that and still go through those struggles and still have a little bit of success says a lot for them. And I think once they finally get things fine-tuned and start trusting and believing it, it’s up to them on how good or how bad they're going to be night in and night out.”

All that said, Cape Central and Jackson were neck-and-neck early, with neither team breaking 30 points by intermission. Down 15-12 with two seconds left in the opening quarter, Jackson’s All-State forward Kole Deck swished a deep 3-pointer to knot things up.

Cape Central answered in the ensuing quarter with Cape Central’s 6-foot-4 sophomore Goliath Morris-Young’s corner 3 handing the Tigers a narrow 20-19 lead midway through the frame. Several possessions later, Mills made the Tiger fan section erupt with a dynamite slam dunk from the side of the basket to make it a 26-21 ball game. Jackson closed the first half on a high note, though, as sophomore Britt Crowden drained a 3 from top of the arc the cut the deficit to 27-25.

However, Cape Central had an answer seemingly any time Jackson pieced together some sort of momentum in the final two quarters. Case in point: After the Indians made it a four-point affair midway through the fourth quarter, and appeared to be within striking distance of a go-ahead lead, Cape Central’s Antonio Sims stole the ball from guard Blayne Reagan and turned it into a fast break layup on the other end, inducing a Jackson timeout and sending a shockwave through the Tiger crowd. Cape Central turned that sequence into a 9-2 run to jump in front 54-46 and slowly pull away as the clock winded down. Senior Matayo Rivers’ reverse layup with 1:20 remaining put the nail in the coffin.

Outside of Deck, who had a game-high 25 points and made a trio of 3s, Jackson failed to garner much offense on the floor. No other Indian scored double digits, with 6-foot-7 freshman forward Jonathan Ernst being the closest with eight points. Cape Central was more physical and more precise in its execution late.

And, frankly, more than deserving of competing in Friday’s championship.

“I thought there were times we moved the ball really well,” Frazier said. “That's a compliment to them just because of buying in. We've practiced a certain way for so long, and then kind of the switched gears midstream on them is challenging. But it's all part of the plan where they can go in environments and they can handle tough times, which is something that we have to do.”

The Tigers will face an even bigger challenge tomorrow night when they take on powerhouse Sikeston in what will be the same type of raucous environment that Frazier referred to.

“To sit here and say I'm focused on tomorrow night,” Frazier said, “it’s in the back of my mind. But I've got to digest what we did tonight because we will see Jackson again, whether it's in the Christmas tournament or whether it's in the regular season. We will see them again.”

Cape Central will face former Tiger Marquel Murray and top-seeded Sikeston in the SEMO Conference Tournament finals tomorrow night, Dec. 13. Tip-off is set for 8:30 p.m.