The best performance -- taking in Cape Central's defeat of Sikeston

My view of the Sikeston at Cape Central boys basketball game at Cape Central High School on Friday, Feb. 12, 2016.

You can read my game story from that night: here.

Let's not make a mountain out of a mole hill. I'm not going to pretend that Cape Central's win over previously undefeated Sikeston on Friday night was anything other than what it was -- a major confidence boost (if the Tigers even needed one), a great resume builder, major bragging rights and strong positioning to win at least a share of the SEMO Conference title. But even if it's nothing more than that, those are still a lot of things to be.

Tigers coach Drew Church would probably rather I don't play up his team's performance on that evening, but I'm going to just a little bit. Because it was special. Even if the season were to end tomorrow or next week, without goals realized -- and it might -- that shouldn't take away from what happened in the gym at Cape Central High School on Friday night.

It's funny how some rivalries are just so satisfying. No matter the buzz before the games, they always manage to find a funny way of taking the entertainment level to a new stratosphere. And so it was in this instance.

I was aware of the anticipation for the matchup, and when it actually arrived it felt like the gym walls swelled in their attempt to contain the emotion and tension within. It's asking a lot for a game to then rise to that energy, but Cape Central and Sikeston did; the Tigers a little more so, which is why things ended the way they did.

As a sports writer, sometimes games run together after a while. Sometimes the night ends and you're trying to figure out how, exactly, you break things down for someone that wasn't there -- not just a recapping of plays, but actually explaining what happened and why. Sometimes you walk away feeling like it was just another game. Sometimes, like Friday night, the spectacle just offers up all the answers you need.

This one laid them out on a platter -- the way Cape Central took the air out of the ball in the opening moments, the way Sikeston showed off its balanced host of threats with an early lead, a Bulldog defense that rattled the Tigers' nerves, the offensive adjustments that Cape Central made and the depth of the Tigers' palpable appetite for victory.

The final three quarters of the game, and in particular the second half, were the best I've seen Cape Central boys basketball play this season. I was curious whether I was caught up in the emotion of the game, so afterward I asked Tiger standout Al Young what he thought -- was that his team's best performance of the season? He looked away from me for a second and smiled, as if the answer was so obviously simple but he was still really glad I asked.

"That's the best game, probably, of all our career right now," he said.

Young is the player that strikes fear into the fans of opposing teams, and his game-high 23 points against Sikeston showed why. But Young wasn't the reason the Tigers handed the Bulldogs their first loss of the season, 20 games in. It was pure grit and effort and outstanding team basketball that did that. The extra pass that came at the end of rushes down the floor. The willingness to fight for a steal or a loose ball so it could be put in the hands of a teammate for a basket.

Young led all scorers, but Tevyn Wright-Hunt came up with key steals, Zyshon Mallory had a ton of critical baskets and Jawone Newell zigged and zagged and put the ball in the right place. Austin Parker is, for my money, one of the most overlooked players in the area (though he won't be for long), if only because he's overshadowed by Young. He does things you don't always see in young players (especially who can lean on supreme athleticism) like finish strong and shoot free throws well, and against Sikeston the moment wasn't too big for him or his 20 points.

Major credit goes to Church as well. He did what many would have done and came out strategically stalling. His team held the ball, trying to shrink the game, dictate the pace and keep the ball out of the hands of the Bulldogs. When it didn't work, he found exactly what his team needed -- he pushed things. The Tigers didn't wait around; instead they got aggressive, adjusting their positioning to better attack the holes in Sikeston's zone, and that was only when the zone even got set up. In most cases it was all about going through Sikeston's press like a knife through warm butter, getting the ball down the floor in a hurry and setting up two-on-ones in the paint for easy baskets.

Church's switch completely turned the game and the Bulldogs had no answer. I asked Sikeston coach Gregg Holifield about his team's ability -- or lack thereof -- to adjust to that change, and he said it's something that has to and will be addressed in practice. Unfortunately for the Bulldogs, the final horn sounded first.

If there's one thing I've heard about the history between Sikeston and Cape Central, it was that often the unexpected team wins; and that a lot of times the team that wins in the regular season is not the one that wins in the postseason.

On Saturday -- after Cape Central had pulled off its upset -- the seedings came out for the Class 4, District 1 tournament that begins this upcoming weekend. Sikeston is still the top seed; the Tigers are still the second seed. It serves as a reminder that the Bulldogs have built their foundation strong, are deserving of the respect and admiration they've earned and that the important games are still yet to come. One regular-season game does not shift planetary alignment. Then again, sometimes it just might.