Lady Tigers debut with 65-29 victory

ST. LOUIS -- Sheila Midgett had a highly successful debut as the Cape Girardeau Central girls basketball coach Monday night.

The Lady Tigers gave Midgett a lopsided victory in her first Central game as they opened the 2001-02 season by rolling past Fox 65-29 in the Oakville Tournament, a four-team, round-robin affair.

"It was a really good first game," said Midgett. "We kind of got an idea of where we stand and what we need to work on."

Alex Wieser scored 21 points to pace the Lady Tigers, who also got 18 points from Sarah Hyslop and 13 from Megan McDonald. Hyslop connected on all four of her 3-point attempts.

Central jumped out to a 29-8 lead after one quarter and never looked back. It was 47-17 at halftime.

The Lady Tigers' junior varsity, competing in the JV bracket of the same tournament, beat Fox 36-29 as Jessi Snell scored nine points.

Both Central teams will face Oakville at 5:30 p.m. today as the tourney continues.

SCOTT CITY 60, CHAFFEE 38

SCOTT CITY, Mo. -- Loren Groves, one of the area's premier players as a freshman last year, began her sophomore season in style by pouring in 34 points and grabbing 13 rebounds.

"It was a good win," said Scott City first-year coach Mike Johnson. "It was sloppy, what you would expect from the first game of the year."

For Chaffee, Jennifer Vandeven had 17 points and Callie Meyr added 10.

ST. VINCENT 46, STE. GENEVIEVE 38

STE. GENEVIEVE, Mo. -- St. Vincent opened its season with a victory in the Valle Tournament, a four-team, round-robin affair.

Nichole Hadler scored a game-high 19 points to pace the Squaws, who trailed 35-34 after three quarters but outscored the Lady Dragons 12-3 in the final period.

The Squaws will play host Valle Wednesday night.

KELLY 50, DEXTER 34

BENTON, Mo. -- Kelly improved to 2-0 by pulling away from a 25-25 halftime tie.

The Lady Hawks, who outscored the Lady Bearcats 14-6 in the third quarter and 11-3 in the final period, were paced by Bridgett Riley with 20 points.

BOYS BASKETBALL

ORAN TOURNAMENT

ORAN, Mo. -- The favored teams all posted decisive victories as the Oran Invitational got under way.

Top-seeded Twin Rivers beat No. 8 North Pemiscot 69-45, No. 2 Richland downed No. 7 Gideon 84-61 and No. 3 Bell City defeated No. 6 Scott County Central 82-59.

Twin Rivers was led by Robbie Moore with 15 points and Matt Thurman with 14. North Pemiscot got 12 from Brandon McCullough.

Sherome Cole poured in 30 points for Richland while Chris Woodall had 12 for Gideon.

Bell City opened its season impressively as Eric Henry scored 22 points. Also in double figures were C.J. Hadley with 14, Kenyon Wright with 13 and Dominitrix Johnson with 10.

For Scott Central, Chris Johnson had 22 points and Terrance Williams added 18.

The opening round concludes tonight as No. 4 Oran faces No. 5 Kelly at 7:30.

WOODLAND TOURNAMENT

MARBLE HILL, Mo. -- Top-seeded Advance and No. 5 Delta advanced to a semifinal showdown Thursday in the Woodland Tournament with first-round victories Monday.

Advance defeated No. 8 seed Zalma 81-43, while Delta downed No. 4 Oak Ridge 68-54.

In the other first-round game, host Woodland, the No. 2 seed, handled No. 7 Bloomfield 72-42. Woodland will play the winner of tonight's final first-round game between No. 3 Leopold and No. 6 Meadow Heights on Thursday.

In Advance's victory, Eric O'Hare led four Hornets in double figures with 17 points. The Hornets led just 21-15 after one quarter but opened up a 42-29 lead by halftime. Zalma's Chad Wiseman scored a game-high 26 points in the losing effort.

Delta took a 46-42 entering the fourth quarter where it outscored Oak Ridge 22-11. Joey Keys paced Delta with 19 points, while Craig Bock scored 15 and Lance Kinder added 14. Clayton Ruesler led Oak Ridge with 19 points and Zac Ruesler tallied 16.

Woodland broke out to a 20-5 lead in the first quarter and was never threatened thereafter. The Cardinals threw a big one-two punch at Bloomfield as Alex VanGennip scored 22 points and Luke Johnson netted 21.

MARQUAND 67, CALEDONIA VALLEY 53

CALEDONIA, Mo. -- Marquand is 2-0 after winning a first-round game of the Caledonia Valley Tournament.

Heath Stephens scored 23 points for the Tigers, who got 12 from Jason Thomas and 11 from Ryan Stephens.

Marquand will play Bismarck tonight as the tourney continues.

JR. HIGH BASKETBALL

CENTRAL 9TH SWEEPS

Cape Central's freshmen boys swept Notre Dame, winning the 'A' game 53-28 and the 'B' contest 44-30.

In the 'A' game, 2-0 Central got 15 points from Lavelle Simpson, 14 from Tyrone Reese and 11 from Lorenzo Braxton. Notre Dame was led by Otis Rutherford with eight points.

The 'B' contest saw Chris Irving pour in 27 points for 1-0 Central. Zach Arnold had 12 for Notre Dame.

CENTRAL 8TH SPLITS

Cape Central's eighth-grade boys split a pair of games with New Madrid.

New Madrid won the 'A' game 52-35. Jared Thomas led Cape Central with 12 points.

Central captured the 'B' game 41-10 behind 11 points from Josh Porter.

--From staff reports