U-HIGH ENCOUNTERS TAME OPENING DAY; AMONG TOP SEEDS, ONLY NO. 8 FALLS

The fifth-seeded Advance Hornets remained undefeated in a 78-51 blowout over the 12th-seeded Bell City Cubs in the opening round of the University High School Christmas Tournament at the Show Me Center Monday night.

The only unbeaten team in the field, Advance, ranked seventh in Class 1A, will face fourth-seeded Notre Dame in today's quarterfinals at 9 p.m.. Earlier in the day, Notre Dame defeated 13th-seeded Delta 84-39.

In other first-round action from the upper part of the bracket, top-seeded and two-time defending champion Charleston cruised to a 63-26 victory over No. 16 seed Chaffee. The Blue Jays will play No. 9 Woodland today at 4:30. In Monday's final first-round game, Woodland pulled the tournament's lone upset, albeit a mild one, with a 54-49 victory over No. 8 Leopold.

Today's consolation play in the upper bracket will pit Bell City against Delta at 9 a.m. and Leopold against Chaffee at 1:30 p.m.

Advance (7-0) exhibited a tenacious man-to-man defense that disrupted Bell City's play, resulting in multiple turnovers for breakaways and easy scores.

"It all starts with defense," said Advance coach Jim Hall. "We took away their passing lanes and prevented them from doing what they wanted to do."

Advance's offense wasn't too bad either. Advance star Garrett Broshuis again led the way with 22 points. Jon French helped out with 13 points while Daniel Turner and Adam Rainey tossed in 12 points each.

"Garrett's play is dictated by the level of competition he faces," said Hall. "He plays harder when the opposing team is tougher and he tends to pass more in games like this."

Advance led throughout, leading 19-5 after one quarter and 36-16 at halftime. The Hornets were able to empty their bench in the final eight minutes after starting the quarter with a 32-point lead.

"We have a much deeper bench," said Hall. "One of their starters Eric Henry was out with chicken pox, and that didn't help their depth any."

Bell City (1-6) had just seven players available for action. Nathan Walter led the Cubs with 22 points. Gabe Scherer added 12 while Jason Rampley tossed in 10.

With Notre Dame next on the agenda, Advance's starters may have needed the rest.

"I think it's going to be a much more intense game than this one," said Hall. "They have good outside shooters and a tenacious man-to-man defense. We'll have to be prepared for a very different game."

Notre Dame 84, Delta 39

Notre Dame evened its record to 4-4 with an opening-round victory over the short-handed Delta Bobcats.

The Bulldogs took a 51-19 lead into halftime and outscored Delta in every quarter en route to an easy win.

Delta (2-4) has only seven players who see much playing time and none of them were able to record double-figure scores.

Notre Dame had a balanced scoring attack with nine players recording points in the scoring ledger.

Notre Dame's Chris Dirnberger scored a game-high 23 points, while teammate Curtis Dannenmueller added 10.

Charleston 63, Chaffee 26

The top-seeded Charleston Blue Jays opened the tournament with a 27-point explosion in the first quarter and recorded another easy first-round victory, although the Red Devils kept things much closer than a lot of people might have expected.

Charleston held a commanding 27-9 lead by the close of the opening quarter, and took a commanding 40-18 lead into halftime.

The Blue Jays outscored Chaffee 14-8 in the third quarter, carrying a 41-17 lead into a final quarter which saw the Red Devils unable to convert a single field goal.

Jordy Mixon led Charleston (6-3) in scoring with 14 points and Howard Biles pitched in with 13.

Chaffee (1-4) was paced in scoring by Chase Eskew and G.P. Glueck, who each had 11 points.

Woodland 54, Leopold 49

The game between the eighth and ninth seeds in any 16-team tournament is generally close and that was certainly the case during the final first-round contest of the night.

Woodland (5-3) got 13 points from C.W. Stacy and 12 from Jason Greer in slipping past Leopold (5-3), which got 21 points from Jason Van de Ven, 13 from Danny Nenninger and 10 from Adam Horrell.

The Cardinals, who have now won two of three meetings against the Wildcats this season, trailed 13-8 after one quarter and 27-22 at halftime. But Woodland rallied with a 17-10 third-quarter edge and held off Leopold.