GAME 9: Scott City 51, Oak Ridge 48

By RACHEL CRADER ~ Special to Semoball.com

The Scott City Rams became the first lower seed to win a game at the Southeast Missourian Christmas Tournament on Saturday at the Show-Me Center.

The No. 13 seed Rams defeated No. 12 Oak Ridge 51-48 in a consolation bracket game.

Scott City tied the game 22-22 just before halftime and last trailed with less than two minutes gone in the third quarter, but the Rams never led by more than seven points in the second half.

"We completed some plays today there at the end, and that's been our Achilles' heel all year," Scott City coach Lance Amick said. "We're starting to grow up as a team a little bit. The experience of the year is starting to show a little bit."

The Rams returned just one starter this season, something senior Cody Page said slowed the team's progress.

"It's a building process right now," Page said. "We're all not used to playing with each other, so it's just a building block. We've got to learn how to finish games, and we're finally starting to realize how to do that."

Oak Ridge pulled within one score several times in the fourth quarter, but despite impressive offensive performances from Garret Light and Brett Thomas, could never tie or overtake the Rams.

Light finished with 18 points, while Thomas scored 17. The duo combined to score all but four of Oak Ridge's points in the Blue Jays' opening round loss to Cape Central.

Page led Scott City offensively with 15 points. Jake Campbell added 11 points, including three 3-pointers. Shae Simmons also finished in double digits for the Rams with 10, including a jumper in the lane with a minute to play that gave Scott City a 51-46 lead.

Scott City scored 18 points in the final quarter after scoring a total of 16 in the last three quarters of Friday's loss to Charleston.

The Rams won despite making just three of 15 free throws.

"The effort was there all day, and it has been all year," Amick said. "The intelligence level just picked up a little bit today. We had more people in the right spots today.

"Today we just more consistently did the things that we needed to do."

OAK RIDGE (48) -- Caleb Elam 3, Garret Light 18, Brian Rhyne 2, Brett Thomas 17, Logan Mangels 3, Stephen Wright 6. FG 15, FT 16-23, F 14. (3-pointers: Elam 1, Thomas 1. Fouled out: none.)

SCOTT CITY (51) -- Josh Henson 2, Skylar Cobb 7, Cody Page 15, Shae Simmons 10, Tyler Glueck 2, Brennan Uelsmann 4, Jake Campbell 11. FG 21, FT 3-15, F 20. (3-pointers: Cobb 1, Page 2, Campbell 3. Fouled out: none.)