I enjoyed a great weekend of basketball at the Missouri Class 4 and 5 state championships in Columbia. I spent nearly three entire days at the Mizzou Arena, but it was worth it. Here are my impressions of championship weekend.
*McCluer North vs. Sikeston: McCluer North looked quite impressive in winning its second Class 5 state championship while Sikeston was dominant in winning the Class 4 title and completing a perfect 30-0 season.
Everyone seemed to want my opinion as to who would win a matchup of these two great champions. (Full disclosure: I am a 1982 graduate of McCluer North).
My answer: McCluer North.
My reason: B.J. Young
It would be a very entertaining game between two teams that love to play up-tempo and push the pace. Sikeston puts on full-court pressure like few high school teams that I’ve seen. They play more than 10 kids and they play defense with great passion. They are relentless in their pressure for the entire 32 minutes. The Bulldogs were simply too much for St. Joe Lafayette and Borgia last weekend. If the Missouri Tigers got back to showing that kind of passion in their full-court defense that Sikeston displayed, they would challenge for the Big XII Conference title every year. They were a great team that was fun to watch because everybody gave
of themselves for the greater good. I like everything about their team.
The quickness, the teamwork and the pressure. They were awesome.
But.
Pressing a team with B.J. Young is like serving up fastballs down the
middle to Albert Pujols. As people have seen this year, B.J. Young is not just a great player. He is a superstar. And, if you want to see him at his best, put him in a game where the pace is fast and furious. That’s when he goes to a very ridiculous level. Only one team did that this year. That was University City, which picked up McCluer North 94-feet in the championship game of the Borgia Thanksgiving Tournament. B.J. Young scored 44 points and did not take a single jump shot all night.
All out full-court pressure enables Young to attack the rim at least 50 times during the game. He never gets tired, so he’s going to keep coming and coming and coming. He is an incredible finisher at the rim, so it would not be a surprise if he would score between 40 and 50 points.
Giving a national Top 20 player like Young the opportunity to attack your defense for 32 minutes is quite risky. He averaged 29 points this season with teams trying to double-team him and keep the Stars in the half-court. All you had to do was watch the fourth quarter of North’s semifinal victory over Lee’s Summit North when Young scored a breathtaking 19 points in the final six minutes and 40 seconds of the game to rally the Stars to a 62-59 victory.
Also, McCluer North has another 6’8″ Division I player in Jordon Granger, who is capable of impacting the game on both ends with his inside scoring and blocked shots. Overall, North is very athletic and deep and they play excellent half-court defense, which was the real key to their state championship run. They held every postseason opponent under 60 points. It would be one helluva game, though.
*Incarnate Word-Blue Springs 2.0: Incarnate Word Academy took down Blue Springs 59-49 to win the Class 5 girls state title for the second consecutive year. The Red Knights defeated Blue Springs in last year state finals as well. The star of this game was senior small forward Brittany Carter and talented freshman guard Nakiah Bell. Carter scored 12 points to match her output from last year’s championship game. She really got the Red Knights going early with some excellent 3-point shooting. The 5’4″ Bell emerged from there as she scored 16 points and passed out a game-high six assists. The young lady handled the bright lights of a televised state championship game as if she were a four-year starter. She
was brilliant. The Red Knights also got excellent play from post players Brianna Puni and Taylor Manuel, who were major factors throughout the weekend. The 6’3″ Manuel was especially dominant in the Red Knights’ 60-56 victory over Webb City in the semifinals. She scored 19 points and displayed the versatility which makes her one of the top post players in the country. Manuel is a point guard in a center’s body. She can post, seal and score with a great touch inside, but she can also handle the ball, pass and see the court like a point guard. It’s an amazing combination.
It was a very competitive game between two very competitive programs.
Unfortunately, things took an ugly turn for the worse late in the game as the contest turned into something that you would normally see in a hockey game. The play was pretty chippy from the beginning as Blue Springs in a physical crew and Incarnate is a team that does not back down from anybody. I watched Blue Springs get pretty physical with St. Joseph’s in Friday night’s semifinals. I knew that wasn’t going to fly against Incarnate on Saturday and I told several officials before that game that the girls final had the potential to be a rough one. I even saw the officiating crew before they took the floor and I told them I hope they were ready because they were going to earn their paychecks tonight.
Unfortunately, I was right. But, it was worse than I could have ever
imagined. As IWA started to pull away in the fourth quarter, the Blue
Springs players suffered a total meltdown as they whistled for
intentional fouls and technical fouls for their disturbing acts of
mayhem. Incarnate Word players were fortunate that nobody was injured because they took some pretty bad cheap shots late in the game. It was really bad to see a championship game get so out of control; especially one that was being televised throughout the entire state. It was a hot mess. I saw the Blue Springs coach getting an earful from school administrators for his inability to control his team on the state’s biggest stage. It was hard to watch. After the game, Blue Springs coach Mark Spigarelli apologized for his team’s actions in the post-game press conference.
*Congratulations to the St. Dominic girls on bringing home the Class 4 state championship and accomplishing a perfect 30-0 season. Last season, the Crusaders advanced to the Final Four, but took two losses and a fourth-place trophy. That was a great accomplishment, but five starters returned and they had their sights set high. They wanted to return to Columbia and bring back the state championship. That loss in the third place game last year was the last time that the Crusaders would taste defeat. They had one of the state’s top point guards in senior Jennifer Rocha, who was a floor general extraordinaire. When she had the basketball in her hands, she was a picture of full confidence mixed in with a little swagger. That is what you want from your point guards. The supporting cast was very good as well with veterans such as Leslie Wilmes, Kelly Schnieders, Lauren Needham and Abigail Niemeyer. The Crusaders saved their best half of basketball for last as they shot 66 percent in the second half of the championship game to break open a close game and defeat Smithville 61-44. In true St. Dominic fashion, four players scored in double figures with Rocha and Wilmes scoring 15 points, Schnieders with 13 and Needham with 11.
*St. Francis Borgia made quite a run to their third consecutive Class 4 boys state championship game. The Knights were defeated by a powerful Sikeston team for the state title, but it was quite a run for the Knights, who were in a transition year after the graduation of All-State players such as Nathan Scheer and Tyler Ressel. Borgia played a wonderful game against Soldan in the semifinals in taking a 71-58 victory. The Knights can hold their heads up high. As a bonus, the Borgia girls came to Columbia as well and took third place in the state tournament as the Cinderella story. It was a tremendous sight to see Borgia nation out in full force in Columbia. The Borgia community has been rocked with some tragic events during the year, so it was good to see these two teams bring some happy times with their collective runs to the state tournament.
*Soldan’s boys and St. Joseph’s girls came to Columbia in hopes of winning state titles, but fell short as Soldan finished third in the Class 4 tournament while St. Joe’s finished fourth in Class 5. Do not be surprised to see these two teams right back in Columbia next year to compete for state titles in 2012 as the will both return a strong group of veterans.
Soldan will have a loaded senior class next year, led by guards Paul
McRoberts, Pete Sanders and forward Randy Holmes. St. Joseph’s will be lead by the Stock twins, Maddie and Morgan along with 6’3″ center Sydney Stipanovich and forward Erin Nelson next season.
*Congratulations also go out to Troy on making a great run to the Class 5 boys state championship game. The Trojans really jelled during the last two weeks to make a spirited postseason run. Their starting backcourt of Neil Branham and Derek Deters really came up big in the playoffs while their role players did their jobs masterfully.
I hope everyone enjoyed my live reports on twitter throughout the
tournament. I had fun watching the games and talking basketball with all of the fans from the different communities. It was also a lot of fun swapping stories from my friends in the media from around the state. I’m looking forward to next season.
(You can follow Earl Austin Jr.’s basketball reports on his website,
www.earlaustinjr.com or via Twitter at twitter.com/earlaustinjr).
