Leading scorer: Gaines moves from Woodland to Wyoming

The Woodland boys basketball team will carry on the rest of this season without its leading scorer.

Senior guard Seth Gaines, one of the top scorers in Southeast Missouri at 22.9 points per game, moved to Wyoming prior to the Cardinals' game Monday in the Stoddard County Athletic Association tournament.

"His dad works on a pipeline up there," Woodland coach David Mirly said, "and he spends his summers up there. We always knew it was a possibility he might move, but it's kind of a surprise in the middle of the season."

Gaines, who stands 5-foot-10, will continue his education at Pine Bluffs High School, a school in southwest Wyoming.

For Woodland this season, Gaines had a high game of 37 points. He scored more than 30 points four times and more than 20 in five other games.

Mirly had worked with Gaines in the recruiting process, which included contact with schools in the Missouri Valley and Ohio Valley conferences. He will remain involved in that process if necessary.

"I'll do whatever I can for him," Mirly said.

As for his own team, which was 4-10 with Gaines and lost to Bell City on Monday, Mirly believes this presents a challenge for his players.

"It's a big loss," Mirly said. "Seth averaged a lot of points, a lot of rebounds and played good defense. But this will be a big opportunity for the kids to step up."

Providing a spark

Central junior Darnell Wilks could not have started Tuesday's game against Doniphan much slower than he did, missing his first seven shots.

He didn't score a basket from the field until just 1 minute, 20 seconds remained in the second quarter. But that basket was the finishing touch as Central wiped out a 12-point deficit in the second quarter.

The Tigers went on to post a 85-79 overtime victory at home.

With Wilks struggling from the floor, David Deisher and Jeremy Kimble spearheaded Central's 22-9 run over the first 7 minutes of the second quarter.

Kimble, a sophomore guard who had earned a spot in coach Derek McCord's doghouse with lackluster play the previous week, had eight points in that run and several key rebounds. He had scored Central's last three points of the first quarter as well to keep the Tigers in the hunt.

Kimble finished the game with a season-best 17 points and added nine rebounds.

"He played hard every possession," McCord said.

Deisher, a senior, had seven points in the run, including an underhanded scoop shot on which he was fouled. He finished with 10 points and 10 rebounds.

But the night ended up belonging to Wilks, who made 12 of his next 13 shots over the rest of the game en route to his 34-point effort. "That's incredible," McCord said.

Wilks finished 10 for 13 from the free throw line and had 14 rebounds.

"Jeremy Kimble, David Deisher and Darnell Wilks really went after every rebound tonight," McCord said.

After knocking Doniphan, the state's No. 3 Class 3 team, out of the No. 1 spot in the SEMO rankings, the Tigers tonight will try to knock off the new No. 1, Poplar Bluff, on the road.

Doniphan's only other loss this season was 65-60 against the Mules.

Win if by 3

The Advance boys basketball team's 71-68 victory against Bernie in the Stoddard County tourney on Tuesday night turned on a buzzer-beating 3-pointer, but not at the end of the game.

Jordan Seabaugh's desparation heave from halfcourt at the end of the third period pulled the Hornets within 42-41 and took the momentum back from Bernie.

"That's a big shot," Bernie coach Morris Karnes said. "They end up beating us by three. That tells you how big a shot it was."

Added Advance coach Joe Shoemaker: "It kind of gave us some momentum and gave us a little energy boost heading into the fourth."

The game was ruled by the trey -- Bernie made 10 and Advance hit six.

Karnes was impressed with the Hornets.

"The thing that makes them so good is the number of athletes they have and the number of people who can score," he said. "They five, six seven guys that can score. ... They didn't panic when they got down three or four points. They just kept playing, kept pushing it up the floor, kept dumping it inside, they knew how to win.

"Our guys right now, up to this point, just do not know how to win those type of games."