East Prairie's Tony Jones shoots a layup over Oran's Kurt Rendleman in the Scott-Miss Conference Tournament Tuesday night at Delta. (Josh Mills/Standard Democrat) [Click to enlarge]

DELTA -- The final night of first round games were played on Tuesday night, as the East Prairie Eagles advanced to the semifinals, by defeating the Oran Eagles 71-60.

The contest was about as evenly matched as a game could be through the first two quarters, as East Prairie led by one at the break, 28-27.

After the ball was inbound in the third quarter however, the momentum shifted in the blink of an eye, as the first four minutes of the second half saw East Prairie outscore their opponents 18-4. The biggest part of the run was East Prairie's M.C. Williams, who hit three 3-pointers in a row, followed by another field goal.

Heading into the fourth quarter, Oran trailed 51-38.

Oran managed to battle back late in the game, and with under two minutes left to play, they pulled within eight points, 66-58.

With the mandatory fouling taking place, the East Prairie Eagles kept their composure, and held firm to their lead, and the win, 71-60.

Williams led all scorers on the night, with 25 points, including five 3-pointers.

East Prairie's Tony Jones also had 17 points in the win.

For the Oran Eagles, it was Kody Campbell who provided the offense, finishing up with 20 points, while going 9-for-12 at the freethrow line.

Oran head coach Denver Stuckey said that he was proud of his team's effort in the loss, and mentioned that Williams was tough to stop on offense.

"The two years that we've played against him (Williams), this is the best that he's shot the ball," Stuckey said. "I told our kids I'll take the blame for that. If he beat us shooting outside then we'd take it, and boy he did."

As far as the loss goes, Stuckey said that Oran played great basketball for a majority of the game.

"For 28 of 32 minutes I thought we played really well," he said. "(Except for) that four minute stretch in the third quarter where I believe it was like an 18-4 run--it was like a four minute dead period. But, like most times this year, I can't fault our kids for effort."

East Prairie head coach Matt Schonhoff had little to be disappointed about in his squad's performance Tuesday evening, as six of his players played with three or more fouls for nearly the entire second half.

"You have to give both teams credit," Schonhoff said. "We both came out and played extremely hard. Oran came out and wanted to attack us in the middle and get us in foul trouble--which they did. We had to combat that in the second half."

"(In the second half) MC (Williams) got extremely hot, and we got the ball inside," he added. "We were able to extend the lead, and we held them to two points in the first six minutes. We just had to fight and claw for the rest of the game."

The win improves the East Prairie Eagles to 7-8 on the season as they head into Thursday night's match-up against Scott Central. The game is scheduled for 7 p.m.

Oran falls to 6-8 on the season, and is now eliminated from the tournament. Their next match-up will be at Oak Ridge on Tuesday evening.