EAGLES POUNCE ON JACKSON, WIN 62-47

JACKSON -- If Friday night's battle for the SEMO Conference boys basketball title between Jackson and New Madrid County Central was a fight, the officials would have stopped it in the first round.

New Madrid beat Jackson to every punch early, scoring the game's first 14 points. But the Indians continued to fight back, cutting the lead to two points in the second quarter, before New Madrid finally pulled away in the fourth quarter for a 62-47 victory.

Jackson, looking for a share of the conference title for the first time since 1993, saw those dreams dashed as the Indians completed their league schedule at 4-2 and overall are 18-5.

New Madrid, which lost its first six games to start the season, improved to 13-9 overall and 5-0 in the conference. The Eagles clinched at least a share of the league title with a conference game against Sikeston still remaining. A win over the Bulldogs on Tuesday clinches the title outright.

"I was scared all night long," said New Madrid coach Lennies McFerren. "With about 29 seconds to go, I asked my assistants if we finally had it won. They said `yeah' but I don't think it's over until that horn sounds, I look up and we have the win."

New Madrid had a 13-point lead at the time, but McFerren couldn't be blamed for looking over his shoulder. The Eagles appeared to have Jackson beat several different times in the contest, only to have the Indians battle back.

"When you spot a good team a 14-0 lead, you're asking a lot of yourself to even get back in the ball game," said Jackson coach Steve Burk.

But somehow, Jackson did come back on the Eagles.

Jackson missed its first 12 shots from the field, including two free throws, to fall behind 14-0 in the first quarter. Justin Keen finally got the Indians on the scoreboard with a driving jumper in the paint at the 55-second mark. That started a 5-0 scoring run in the final minute to make the score 14-5 heading to the second quarter.

The Indians hit their first three 3-pointers of the second quarter -- two by Doug Cary and one by Keen -- to close to within two points of the Eagles. Keen, which earlier in the day signed a letter of intent to play football for Southeast Missouri State University, finished with four 3-pointers and a game-high 21 points.

But New Madrid regrouped to end the half ahead 30-24.

"The early lead was big, but we got back in the game," Burk said. "We were fine at halftime, but the third quarter was the key."

The third quarter started about as good as the first for Jackson. The Eagles used an 11-2 run to start the second half and hold a 41-26 lead.

"At halftime I thought we were right there, but we came out in the third quarter and didn't play very well at all," said Burk. "We made another run at them, but by that time we had expended so much effort just to get back to that point it was a really difficult task."

Two 3-pointers by Keen and a conventional 3-point play by Cory Daniel closed New Madrid's lead to 43-35 entering the final quarter.

From there the Eagles held the ball out, attempting just two field goals over the final eight minutes. But 19 of 24 free throw shooting in the quarter was more than enough to hold off the Indians.

"You have to give New Madrid credit," said Burk. "They went to their delay game, hit all their free throws and they did it with their best player on the bench."

New Madrid's Ed Farr sat out most of the second half with foul trouble before fouling out in the fourth quarter. He finished with 15 points while Demarcus Johnson scored 18.

"We don't look like the same ball club that first started the season," said McFerren. "We look three times (better) than the ball club that started the season."