Dec 5 Flash

            It doesn’t take long….we’re into the winter sports now full swing. Let’s take a quick look at some of the early season tournament championships.

            At Vianney, Coach Kevin Walsh kept knocking on the door and finally….after several tries he led the Golden Griffins (3-0) into the Championship room with a 63-54 win over Belleville West. This title snapped the five year string held by Hazelwood Central. Tony Cochran, one of four Grifs in double figures, led the way with 18 points. But, the real difference was the stingy Vianney defense that surrendered only 9 points in the 3^rd quarter to the Maroons. The Golden Griffins will be on Prepcasts this Tuesday as the face the DeSmet Spartans.

            The host school Carthage kept the trophy at home after a thrilling 57-56 win over Joplin in the title game. Desmond Buerge sank the second of two free throws with just 8.5 second left for the winning margin. Buerge finished the game with 19 points. Joplin’s last second shot by Charlie Brown went off the rim. Brown was the game-high scorer with 27 points.

            At Pattonvile, the tournament was won in impressive form by the McCluer Comets(3-0). McCLuer really cruised to these three wins as they won each contest by 25+ points!  Generally, the lightning quick Comets raced ahead quickly and decisively in the first quarter to break it open early. McCluer beat Chaminade (defending champion)  in the title tilt 74-36. The Comets are being led by Demetrius Floyd (19.3) but he has ample support in the early going--Tryone Griffin, JR 14.7, Leon Watkins 14.7 and Shacquille Edwards 9.0—make this a difficult team to defend.

            At Potosi, Cape Central was led by T.J. Tisdell. His 23 points and 15 boards led the way to a 59-44 win over St James in the championship game. A 20-10 2^nd quarter outburst led Central to the winners’ circle.

            The Whitfield Round-Robin saw three teams finish with 2-1 records. Cardinal Ritter, Whitfield and DeSmet all had identical win-loss records…who’s the champ…really doesn’t matter. These teams got in some quality games against quality opponents. DeSmet was able to shine with Nolan Berry (apparently headed to Butler) leading the way. This youngster is always smooth—shooting, rebounding, handling the ball. He doesn’t seem to get ruffled by opponents, score, officiating. Cameron Biedscheid (ND bound-verbally) led Cardinal Ritter as he dropped in a sweet 30ppg in the 3 games. Biedscheid, one of many products of Marvin Neals, will continue to grow and develop this year and throughout his college career (whever that may be) as Coach Neals “brings him along”. The real winner here though is probably Whitfield. The Warriors step up in class size to face very high quality teams early in the year. This type of competition prepares the Mike Potzou’s team for the post-season. It also highlights any weaknesses on his club. He’ll have all year now to iron them out.

            At the Norm Stewart Classic in Columbia…no tournament…just a shootout. Rock Bridge surprised many observers with a 77-69 win over Nixa. Nixa has been regarded as a top-10 state team in most pre-season polls and  is ranked #2 currently. The Bruins were led by Mizzou Recruit, Travis Jorgenson. Jorgy, dropped in 5 of 7 from beyond the arc. This game was a race-horse type game….continual sprints up and down the court with 3’s raining in from all regions of the court.  Watch these two teams down the road.

            6-10 Tyler McCullough led Fayetteville to an early season 4-0 record with a 63-49 win over Kickapoo in the title game of the Kickapoo Tip-Off Classic. Amazingly, McCullough only had two points but his shared the ball (5 assists), rebound well( 7 rebounds) as he led his team to title. You don’t think that the Chiefs were double or triple teaming McCullough now, do you ?

            Perryville had been wondering…what had happened to Ross Moldenhauer? The Senior had averaged 10 ppg last year but in the first two games, he couldn’t buy a basket (or so it seemed). Saving the best to last (in this touney), Moldenhauer was shut out in the first half and then erupted for 15 2^nd half points to lead Perryville to 56-50 victory over Leopold in the Championship game of the Woodland Tournament. As so often happens, it came down to free throws.  Perryville went 6 of 8 in the late going while Leopold missed five consecutive charity tosses during the same stretch. Guess who’s shooting free throws this week ?

Next week, we’ll be back in the video studio with more winter sports.

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