Jackson gets over hump, tops Cape Central 50-41 to claim Southeast Missourian Christmas Tournament title

The third time was the charm for the Jackson Indians.

In the third straight championship matchup between the local rivals, the top-seeded Indians completed the trilogy by defeating the No. 2 Cape Central Tigers 50-41 to take home the Southeast Missourian Christmas Tournament title on Monday, Dec. 30, at the Show Me Center.

Senior Kole Deck turned in another all-court masterpiece to help hand his team its first tournament championship since 2013, which was also the first time they defeated the Tigers in the tournament final.

“This is the first time Jackson's won the Christmas Tournament in over 10 years,” Deck said. “So, we knew coming into this that all the odds were against us, but we had to break that streak and take it home.

“I’ve been going to this tournament and I've been at all the games since I was a little kid. I always dreamed of winning this tournament. So, now that I'm finally here as a senior in my last year, I'm so glad I got to do it.”

Deck dropped a team-high 18 points, while teammates Jory Thoma and Jon Ernst finished with eight apiece.

Using physicality in the paint and stifling defense — and finally, a clutch steal and fast break layup from the sophomore Thoma with 35 seconds remaining — Jackson (11-2) squashed a Tiger comeback on its way to victory.

The performance comes only two weeks after the Indians fell short against Cape Central (7-4) in the SEMO Conference Tournament semifinals, 60-53. That stoked a fire no one could put out on Monday.

“You know how tough it is to win this thing,” head coach Kory Thoma said. “I mean, every coach in this tournament is super. I never did this when I was a player and haven't done it as a coach. It’s a big night for us. We lost to them a couple weeks ago, so to see my team improve after being down early and when things weren't going our way and to just keep grinding was great. So proud of our boys. They executed our game plan to a T.”

After trailing 8-1 through the first few minutes, Jackson went up 11-10 to take its first lead of the game behind nine Deck points, including a pair of corner 3s. Then sophomore Blayne Reagan capped a 14-2 run with a driving layup.

The Indians then broke it open when they pushed the lead to as much as 25-14, triggered by Thoma’s smooth second-chance jumper with 3:52 left in the second quarter. Reagan capped the half for Jackson with a beautiful driving layup with 10 seconds left that made it 33-22.

The Indians went on to preserve that lead for the majority of the second half.

However, it wasn't easy. Upon trailing 39-31 at the end of a low-scoring third quarter, Cape Central senior Mar’K Mills scored an emphatic “And One” layup to cut it to 39-36, sparking a 7-0 run. But Deck preceded that with a slick jumper before senior Lee Ivy drained a pair of important free throws with 1:25 remaining to give Jackson a 45-39 cushion.

Following two Mills free throws, Cape Central had a chance to push it to overtime before Thoma’s electric steal and layup iced the game.

“Our defense was spot on,” Coach Thoma said. “I think we rebounded well again. We got beat in transition a couple times, but, I mean, it's Cape Central and that's what they do. I thought we handled it well and we made that a point of emphasis. There were a lot of other things that the boys executed well tonight. Lamont’s got a good bunch and he’s a good coach. We’ve got one more crack at them later in the season to see who takes the season battle.”

As for the Tigers, well, what can you say?

First-year head coach Lamont Frazier’s team was simply outplayed.

Cape Central fell behind by double-digits twice in this game — seemingly too much in a matchup against a dialed-in Jackson team that made few mistakes — and were outperformed on the glass and struggled from 3-point range.

Edwards made the lone 3-pointer for the Tigers late in the first half. Aside from the 6-foot-7 junior’s 11 points and Mills’ game-high 19, no Cape Central player scored more than four points on the night.

"Obviously we wanted to slow down Matayo (Rivers) and TySeanDre’,” Deck said. “So, we did a great job slowing them both down. We got them frustrated early.”

A win would have given the Tigers their third straight Christmas Tournament title and their sixth in the past eight years.

But Jackson was ready to crash the party and, ultimately, broke a streak of its own as a fourth straight finals loss would have set a new tournament record.

“It's a big win, but we can't stop now because we still have got half the season left,” Deck said. “We’ve got a seven-game win streak. That's the longest I've had since I've been on the team in two years. So, we got Farmington next week and they beat Cape too. So, we’ve got a hard game and we’ve got to keep going.”

The Indians will return to the court this Saturday, Dec. 4, when they host the unbeaten Knights (9-0) at 12:30 p.m. Cape Central will begin the new year with a tournament “what-if” matchup on the road at fourth-place finisher Scott City (8-2) on Friday at 6:30 p.m.

Post-Tournament Awards

Deck, Mills, and Edwards were named to the All-Tournament team. Joining them were Ryan Jeffries of Delta, Preston Campbell of Leopold, Korbin Kinder of Woodland, Nolan Fowler of Chaffee, Max Snider of Scott City, and the Notre Dame duo of Kolton Johnson and Brett Dohogne.

Scott City’s Kaden Lowery was named the tournament Fan Vote MVP. The sophomore averaged 12.5 points per game, including a tournament-high 26 points in the first round.