Brian Rosener is the keeper of the Semoball Cup which is presented to the school with the most successful season. It is based on a formula that takes into account the combined winning percentage of all sports teams plus bonus points for advancement in postseason play for both teams and individuals. The bonus points are divided by the number of teams a school fields. Rosener has been the sports editor for the Daily American Republic in Poplar Bluff, Mo. since December 2001. He was born and raised in St. Louis, where he attended Lindbergh High School and Webster University. He is married to Jennifer, a Poplar Bluff native, has a son Jack and a dog named Satchel who stands in for his @semoballBrian photo.

Showdown take 2

Posted Saturday, December 30, 2006, at 12:13 AM

Friday night

Semifinals

Forrest City 69, Warren Central 64

Vashon 107, Union City 75

Consolation semifinals

Poplar Bluff 71, Tulsa McLain 62, 3OTs

Harrison 83, Meridian 68

Saturday's schedule

7th: Meridian vs. McLain, 4 p.m.

5th: Poplar Bluff vs. Harrison

3rd: Union City vs. Warren Central

championship: Vashon vs. Forrest City

That's right, the Mules won in three overtimes to reach the consolation final at 5:30 p.m. Saturday. It was an odd game in which the Mules led 9-2 after one quarter and at the end of regulation it was tied at 46 after both teams missed chances to win in the final 13 seconds.

There were eight lead changes and seven ties in the three overtimes.

TJ Stonecipher tied the game at 50-50 to send the game into OT No. 2 while Phillip Brown ran the length of the court, drew a foul and hit two free throws in the final nine seconds to tie the game at 58-58. In OT No. 3, led 62-60 when Brown threw out of a trap with a cross-court pass to Jordan Chaligoj, who canned a 3 and the Mules finished with six straight free throws to win.

Leon Powell followed his 39-point performance Thursday night with 31 more points as Vashon out-ran Union City. Cornelius Walker added 23 points for Vashon, the defending tournament champs.

Stephon Weaver and Marcus Britt each scored 21 to lead Forrest City past Warren Central in another thriller. Weaver has signed with Arkansas State while Britt chose Louisiana Tech. Kelson Stewart, who is unsigned, scored 16 points.

Vashon looks pretty hard to beat but Forrest City is a very solid team -- they hit 23-of-25 free throws, missing just one in the final quarter.

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Note: The nature of the Internet makes it impractical for our staff to review every comment. Please note that those who post comments on this website may do so using a screen name, which may or may not reflect a website user's actual name. Readers should be careful not to assign comments to real people who may have names similar to screen names. Refrain from obscenity in your comments, and to keep discussions civil, don't say anything in a way your grandmother would be ashamed to read.

In full disclosure....I live in Cape Girardeau. And I absolutely love the Christmas tournament here. When you get 5,000 plus people to come to high school basketball games....there is a lot of excitement. So.....why do I care about some other tournament right now and/or why are Poplar Bluff and Sikeston not a part of the tournament here. I don't know why the Christmas tournament here does not have a tournament pool that creates competitive games from Round 1 instead of 30 point blow outs. It would make an even greater tournament than what is already a great tournament now.

Why can't we get a more competitive 16 team bracket?

-- Posted by Rex Rust on Sat, Dec 30, 2006, at 12:38 AM
You don't have to be a jerk about it!

-- Posted by ecmo on Sat, Dec 30, 2006, at 11:03 AM

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