Playing in front of its fifth annual "McBride Night" crowd, the
Chaminade (St. Louis) boys basketball team got caught up in the hype Saturday night, and fell behind by six points early in its 70-50 win over Maplewood-Richmond Heights.
Maplewood-Richmond Heights andChaminade battled earlier this week.
Photo by Dean Backes
Then with about five and a half minutes remaining in the second quarter, Blue Devil senior
Eric Liska buried three straight 3-pointers to lift the visitors to a 30-17 advantage over Chaminade, forcing Red Devil coach Kelvin Lee to call a timeout and allow his top-ranked Red Devils to regroup.
"I told my seniors, ‘you guys are seniors, let's show some composure,'" Lee said of the conversation that took place in the team huddle at that point. "And they did. They went out…we got some stops and we scored to get back in the game. In the second half we did a better job of executing our plays and we got what we wanted."
Chaminade rebounded by scoring the final 12 points of the half to get back to within 30-29 at intermission, and then scored the first 11 points of the third quarter. During the 23-0 run, the Red Devils shut out their guests for more than nine minutes.
"That's the way we know how to play," Florida signee
Bradley Beal said of top-ranked Chaminade's back-breaking run. "Play hard. Pick it up full court and pressure them. Force turnovers and force bad shots. They were outrebounding us. They were outworking us. In the second half we just tried to come out and focus on rebounding and on the defensive end. Our defense leads to our offense."
Beal scored 11 first-half points, and finished the night with a game-high 34. The 6-foot-3 guard buried several authoritative dunks, including a crowd pleaser on a putback in traffic.
While the competition on the court was heated, as is expected, it was hot on the benches as well. Three technical fouls were called on the Blue Devils, including two on the coaching staff. The other one was whistled on senior Tony King for taunting after he sank a 3-pointer.
At one point, Lee and Maplewood-Richmond Heights coach Corey Frazier met at midcourt.
"Corey Frazier teams always play hard," Lee said following the spirited battle. "They're fighters, you know, and it got a little ugly there for a while. But that's Corey. I defended my house. I'm not going to let anyone come into my house and talk to me like that. I gotta defend my house and my players responded, so it was all good."
Following the 20-point win, which improved Chaminade's overall record to 21-0 and 7-0 in the Metro Catholic League standings, Red Devil players greeted McBride alumni and accepted congratulations. McBride closed its doors in 1971. Many of the underclassmen attended Chaminade beginning in 1972. But those that had graduated the year before or sooner were without a team to cheer for. Rooting for the Red Devils seemed only natural.
"It feels good," Beal said of donning the McBride uniforms of green shorts and green jerseys trimmed in white with orange numbers once a year. "They did a good thing once their school closed and they all came to our school. So we're just showing our love and our respect to them by wearing the green uniforms and representing them."
Andy Kleinlein scored 13 points for the Red Devils, while
Tevin Evans chipped in nine. King paced Maplewood-Richmond Heights with 22 points. Liska and
Jake Hensel added nine and six points respectively.
Chaminade hosts Jennings (1-15) Friday night before tackling McCluer North (20-2) at home Saturday. The Blue Devils (8-9), meanwhile, played at Hancock Tuesday and hosted Hazelwood Central Thursday before traveling to Bayless for a key South Central Athletic Association battle. Both squads stand at 4-0 in league play.
McCluer North travels to McCluer Wednesday and hosts Riverview Gardens Thursday before Saturday's epic battle with the Red Devils. The North Stars lost Monday to Hazelwood Central (18-1) 81-63 and have been upended twice in its last three contests after starting the season with 19 straight wins.
NORTHEAST NODAWAY UPENDS KING CITY IN SIX OVERTIMESKing City's
Ethan Mcmillen heaved a desperation shot with 0.9 seconds remaining on the clock from three quarters of the court, and made it, to send the King City Invitational's third place game to overtime last weekend. Eventually the contest went six extra frames, but McMillen's heroics fell short as
Northeast Nodaway (Ravenwood) won the contest 100-93.
Along the way, 10 players fouled out, including seven from King City, 93 free throws were taken and 13 3-pointers were made in the contest that is possibly Missouri's 10th longest high school basketball game in history. In all, King City connected on 3-pointers late in two other extra frames to extend the game.
King City's
Dalton Workman (30) and Northeast Nodaway's
Bryce Farnan (26) combined for 56 points in the contest before fouling out.
John Spikingadded 16 points for King City. Northeast Nodaway was led by
Colby Wiederholt's 30 points, while
Aaron Patton and
Kevin Stoll added 19 and 18 points respectively.
SHOW ME CENTER TO HOST VOLLEYBALL CHAMPIONSHIPSThe Missouri State High School Activities Association Board Members announced last month that the 2011-2014 state volleyball championships will be held at the Show Me Center in Cape Girardeau.
The announcement secures southeast Missouri's first opportunity to host the volleyball championships.
"The Show Me Center is elated to have produced a winning bid to host the Missouri Girls State Volleyball Championships for the next four years," Director of the Show Me Center David Ross said in a press release. "Southeast Missouri has proven in the past to produce state-caliber high school volleyball teams and now they will have the opportunity to play in front of their fans at a facility on the eastern part of the state."
Kansas City and Independence gave Cape Girardeau a run for its money, but fell short. The tournament will continue to use two competition courts for Friday's round-robin semifinals. Then on Saturday, the tournament drops to a single court for the consolation and championship matches.
The tournament, which has been held at Kansas City's Municipal Auditorium the past three years, will take place Nov. 4-5 (2011). Over the next three years the championships will be held Nov. 2-3 (2012), Nov. 8-9 (2013) and Nov. 7-8 (2014).
LAST WEEK'S TOP BASKETBALL PERFORMANCESBOYSDerek Daniels of Liberty-Mountain View scored 24 points and was credited with eight assists and 18 rebounds in a 60-56 win over Ava …True Divine Word Academy's
Montez Upchurch scorched the nets for 24 points while also blocking 10 shots and pulling down 17 rebounds in a 103-70 win over Victory Baptist Academy …
Rowan Walquist of Missouri Home School ripped the cords for 21 points and added three assists, a couple of blocked shots, 15 rebounds and four steals to his line in a 64-45 win over St. Louis Christian Home School … Drexel's
CJ Bolton scored 26 points and ripped down 12 rebounds in a 66-36 win over Miami … Bradley Beal of Chaminade ripped the cords for 34 points, 23 of which came in the second half, three steals, a pair of assists, seven rebounds and blocked a shot in a 70-50 win over Maplewood-Richmond Heights.
GIRLSMorgan Eye of Montrose scored 21 points and was credited with seven assists, four blocked shots, nine rebounds and seven steals in an 84-15 win over Northeast Vernon County … Everton's
Jessica Holland scored 34 points while dishing out a pair of assists, blocking a shot, pulling down nine rebounds and swiping a couple of steals in a 70-64 loss to Humansville …
Hannah McGennis of Missouri Home School scorched the nets for 19 points and dished out six assists, blocked a shot, reeled in 14 rebounds and grabbed eight steals in a 51-40 win over Crossroads Area Home School … Bismarck's
Jordan Martin ripped the cords for 32 points and was credited with an assist, a pair of rebounds and five steals in a 71-50 win over Valley …
Jill Lucas of Penney scored 23 points, pulled in 16 rebounds and grabbed a steal in a 73-46 win over Polo.
