Leopold holds off Scott County Central 47-46 in Southeast Missourian Tournament thriller

Scott County Central had a chance to force overtime. Leopold did just enough to stay alive.

Preston Campbell had 22 points, junior Riley Engelen hit a late clutch shot and Leopold boys’ basketball outlasted the Braves 47-46 in the first round of consolations at the Southeast Missourian Christmas Tournament on Friday morning at the Show Me Center.

Engelen’s go-ahead layup with four seconds left cemented the victory, validating coach Jimmy Lincoln’s belief that his team is poised to improve down the stretch despite being young and banged up.

“Overall, I'm proud of the kids,” Lincoln said. “It was a good game. I felt like we played hard. We came out and in the beginning I don't think we guarded real well. We kind of settled for 3s a little bit. But as the game progressed, we started getting to the basket and if you'd have told me when the season started that, ‘hey, we're 5-5 and we're playing in Day 3,’ we'd have took it. We had five seniors on the team last year. Four were starters, so we've kind of started from scratch. I’m happy where we're at right now.”

SCC senior Trevor Brown was fouled as time ran out in regulation after missing a game-tying 3-pointer. After rimming his first free throw, Brown sunk his second before missing his third to bow the Braves out of the tournament.

Campbell’s jumper off a missed foul shot with 2:50 left put Leopold up by three before Engelen made two free throws with 40 seconds remaining to give the Wildcats a 45-42 advantage. That’s until SCC star Cortavian Banks drained a long-distance 3 with 30 seconds left to tie things at 45 apiece. The senior finished with a team-high 17 points.

“When you’ve got somebody like Banks, you can't relax,” Lincoln said. “And when you're playing Scott Central, I don't care what team they have, they have a tradition. They see it. They walk in the gym every day, and they know what the tradition is. And when you got the best player on the court, bar none, he can take a game over.”

But the Wildcats did enough to hold him off as Engelen’s layup then put Leopold ahead to stay.

“You’ve got to give a shout out to Riley Engelen, No. 20, who hit that shot,” Lincoln said. “He didn't play last year, so he hasn't played since his freshman year. We are blessed to get him to come out and he's been a staple for us. And so, for him to take that ball to the basket and get the shot and put it in was big.”

Leopold has now defeated the Braves in two of the previous three meetings.

Leopold will face No. 15 seed Advance in the second round of consolations tomorrow afternoon at 1:30 p.m. at the Show Me Center. Scott County Central will kick off the New Year with a home game against Westwood Baptist Sr. on Tuesday, Jan. 7, at 7:30 p.m.