Christen Phillips had no intention of ending his senior season on-the-court Saturday afternoon. The 6-0 guard scored a game-high 28 points, as the No. 2 seed New Madrid County Central routed No. 7 seed East Prairie 76-45 in the first round of the Class 3, District 1 Tournament at Kennett High School, in Kennett, Mo. After scoring one point in the first half, Phillips was seemingly unguardable in the second half. He scored 27 points in the final 16 minutes and 17 in the third quarter. “It’s hard to pack it in against a team when you’re down,” East Prairie head coach Casey Knight said. “The first-half, it was a close game, so everything was going good there. He started hitting some of those shots and opened it up, and as a high school kid, it’s hard not to get out there and try to pressure a little bit more. Once they started hitting those shots and started to get to-the-rim, the lead extended out a little bit more. He really got them going and got their confidence rolling and got them back in rhythm.” After cutting the NMCC lead to five, 40-35, Phillips started to get things going. With 4:29 left, the senior hit a jumper from the right-wing, to push the lead to seven, 42-35. Phillips then added on to that, with 3:52 left, after NMCC forced a turnover, and he transitioned that into a layup at the other end, to make the game a double-digit contest — and the largest lead for NMCC at the time — at 46-35. Still, amid a scoring-drought, the pressure continued to show for East Prairie, and Phillips noticed that and took advantage. With 3:11 left, NMCC created another turnover, and on that same possession, Phillips hit a short jump shot from the right elbow, making it 50-35. Knight eventually had enough, after Phillips drained a three from the left-wing, with 2:20 remaining, and called a timeout with 2:20 left in the third. NMCC outscored East Prairie 24-9 in the frame, and 45-15 in the second half. Despite a lopsided 16 minutes to end the game, the first half was all but lopsided. NMCC went into halftime leading by three, 33-30, as East Prairie came out of the gates ready and looking to catch the No. 2 seed off-guard. Starting the game, junior Donnie Ray Brown put NMCC on-the-board, after catching the ball in the low-post and getting his shot to go off-glass. Senior Harrison Moore responded for East Prairie, though, as he got a driving floater to go to tie the game. Then, after Phillips made one-of-his-two free-throw attempts, to make the game 3-2, senior Ke’von Williams caught an Austin Davis pass in the low-post, and converted his layup, to make it 5-2. East Prairie, would then take a 6-5 lead, after a short 4-0 burst, before Williams missed his ensuing layup attempt, got his rebound, and converted on his second-chance opportunity to make it 7-6. From there, NMCC went on a 7-0 run to take a 13-6 lead with 2:53 left. Sophomore Hayden Ellis ended the run, on a driving layup, with 2:45 left, while Trea Cade knocked down a three-pointer, with 1:57 left, to cut the NMCC lead to two, 13-11. NMCC ended East Prairie’s momentum, with 1:26 left, after sophomore Shamar Williamson got his driving floater to go down, and push the lead out to four, 15-11. The back-and-forth first frame continued after Moore drove to the rim from the left baseline and made his layup to make it 15-13. Moore also hit one-of-his-two attempts from the charity stripe to cut the lead to one, 15-14, before NMCC ended the frame with a basket, to equal the total for the first quarter. Starting the second-quarter, East Prairie went on 9-0 run to take a 23-17 lead. East Prairie’s run started after an outlet pass off an out-of-bounds play that saw sophomore Jase Aycock finish with a layup. Senior Jack Scruggs then pump-faked, got his defender to bite, and took one-dribble and made a deep two-pointer, to give East Prairie an 18-17 lead with 6:53 left. Then off a missed three-pointer, Moore fought his way into position, got a hard-earned rebound, and got his second-chance opportunity to go, to make it 20-17, with 6:32 left. NMCC ended the run, with 5:40 left, after Williams received a nice pass from junior Kylan Minner and converted a layup, to cut the East Prairie lead to 23-19. After East Prairie answered back, to push the lead back to four, 25-21, a Brown floater in the lane made it 25-21. Brown added another basket, with 3:58 left, on a short mid-range shot from the left corner that tied the game at 25 as well. East Prairie would then grow it’s lead with 3:23 left, after Moore missed a shot, got his rebound, and converted a layup, while also drawing a foul for an and-one to push the East Prairie margin to four, 29-25. NMCC only allowed one more point in the final three minutes, though, as it went on an 8-1 run to close the frame to take a narrow margin into the locker room. NMCC faces No. 3 seed Kennett, on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. East Prairie 14 16 9 6 — 45 NMCC 17 16 24 21 — 76 EAST PRAIRIE (45) — Jack Scruggs 14, Harrison Moore 13, Jase Aycock 10, Trea Cade 3, Cooper Towe 3, Hayden Ellis 2. FG 15, FT 13-23, F 16. (3-pointers: Cade, Scruggs. Fouled out: Towe) NMCC (76) — Christen Phillips 28, Ansel Underwood 10, Ke’von Williams 10, Marcelous Phillips 8, Donnie Ray Brown 8, Shamar Williamson 6, Kylan Minner 5, Austin Davis 2, Bryshawn Williams 1. FG 33, FT 7-13, F 16. (3-pointers: Phillips 2, Fouled out: none)