Scott City parlays confidence into district win against Kelly

CHARLESTON — Junior Skylar Cobb found his shooting rhythm during the second quarter and didn't let up.

Cobb shot Scott City past Kelly 69-54 in the opening round of the Class 3 District 1 boys basketball tournament Monday.

"When I'm hitting them, my confidence is up," Cobb said. "I try to get open and throw it up there. If it goes in, my confidence goes up.

"It's not that if I miss one, I'm down. It's the way the game's going. If I'm in a rhythm, we have momentum, our crowd's loud, it all builds up. I feel good and shoot it."

The Rams, seeded fifth, advanced to face top-seeded Charleston at 6 p.m. Thursday.

Cobb finished with 26 points, including five 3-pointers. After Scott City (8-15) trailed by four points after the first quarter, Cobb gave the Rams the lead for good about three minutes into the second with five straight points.

"If I'm hitting them, they'll give me the ball," Cobb said of his teammates. "When anyone's hot, we try to give them the ball as much as we can."

Scott City's Caleb Anderson finds himself double-teamed by Kelly's Levi Felter and Eric Turley during the first quarter.

When the Hawks (11-13) seemed ready to mount a rally, Cobb would unleash a 3 to squash the threat.

"Skylar Cobb made a lot of shots tonight and it got them the momentum and they carried the game," Kelly senior Josh DeBrock said. "It's tough. You go down the court thinking the whole time, 'That was a nice shot.' You try to figure out something on offense, and if something doesn't fall, it's just more momentum for them."

Kelly coach Nate Wills said Cobb's clutch 3-pointers negatively affected his team in three ways.

"It's a dagger for a number of reasons," Wills said. "One, it gives him confidence, so he builds off that, getting a little streaky. Two, it demoralizes us a little bit. If we've done something good and then he comes back and does that, it kind of gives you a letdown. Then the difference in the points."

FRED LYNCH ~ flynch@semissourian.com Kelly's Josh DeBrock goes up for a shot between Scott City's Jonathan Lacey and Cody Page during the third quarter of their first-round Class 3 District 1 game Monday at Charleston.

Cobb got plenty of help from senior Cody Page, who added 22 points. Page did most of his scoring down low.

"I think we came out a little timid," Page said. "We didn't really know what to expect. We got in our groove there in the second quarter and just took off."

The Rams decided to switch their defense for Monday's game after they suffered a 75-65 setback to Kelly on Feb. 10. Scott City worked on its defensive surprise for the last two weeks in preparation for the rematch.

"We've been working for about two weeks here on this game, practicing for it," Scott City coach Lance Amick said. "We switched defense. Last time we played them a little matchup zone, a little 2-3. Tonight we went straight man-to-man. We really felt like that's the way we had to play to win."

FRED LYNCH ~ flynch@semissourian.com Kelly's Josh DeBrock goes up for a shot between Scott City's Jonathan Lacey and Cody Page during the third quarter of their first-round Class 3 District 1 game Monday at Charleston.

DeBrock, who scored a team-high 25 points, said the different defensive look didn't affect his team much. He said it was more a case of shots not falling.

"We just stopped moving on offense mostly," he said. "We didn't make any shots. Our shooting percentage was absolutely horrible tonight. I really don't think we were taking bad shots, I just think they weren't falling."

The Hawks shot 26 percent (13 of 50) on 2-pointers, with the majority coming in the paint. Wills attributed that to his team's lack of size.

"I thought we drove the ball well, but we just couldn't finish in the paint," Wills said. "When you can't get things to fall in the paint, you're going to struggle scoring."

FRED LYNCH ~ flynch@semissourian.com Kelly's Josh DeBrock takes a shot as Scott City's Shae Simmons defends during the fourth quarter of their first-round Class 3 District 1 game Monday at Charleston.

Page enjoyed exacting a little revenge for the Feb. 10 game. Plus the game was a little personal for him.

"I'm friends with pretty much everyone on their team," he said. "We all make it kind of personal and go out there and try to beat each other every year. It definitely makes it sweeter."

Scott City 11 18 20 20 — 69

Kelly 15 7 13 19 — 54

SCOTT CITY (69) — Skylar Cobb 26, Cody Page 22, Shae Simmons 4, Tyler Glueck 5, Kyle Lacey 11. FG 24, FT 13-15, F 14. (3-pointers: Cobb 5, Page 3, Glueck 1. Fouled out: None)