CBC pulls away in 2nd half to claim Class 6 title

Staley brings home 1st state trophy.

SPRINGFIELD — Spending most of the year traveling to basketball courts across the country paid off for Christian Brothers College High School.

The Cadets won the Class 6 championship game, 68-51, over Nixa in what was essentially a road game in front of thousands clad in red-and-white.

Almost most of the lower level of JQH Arena on Friday night was filled with fans from the nearby town but the St. Louis school left with the school's seventh state title.

“This game was, you know, it was nothing that we weren't prepared for,” CBC coach Justin Tatum said. “We had prepared ourselves by having a tough schedule, playing 90 percent of our games on the road, being used to an environment like this, being used to a team who is well-coached and have played with each other for a long time. But we found ways to win and you know, this game was like no other.”

The Cadets (26-6) got 38 combined points from senior guards Robert Martin and Larry Hughes Jr. The latter led the team with 20, while Martin had 18. Each hit three 3-pointers and each made five free throws, but each dominated in different halves. The Indiana State-bound Martin had 16 in the first half, while Hughes Jr. scored 14 in the second half.

Twenty-five years after his dad, 14-year NBA vet Larry Hughes won a state title at CBC, Larry Jr. won his first.

“It is an indescribable feeling,” Hughes Jr. said. “My dad won a state championship with him (Coach Tatum, who played at CBC), and it's just crazy it comes full circle to get one my senior like they did. This time we won 14 games straight to get here. And to win it all, oh my, I love my guys. We fought through everything, adversity, the whole Nixa city was out there. We fought the crowd, referees … everything. I'm just proud of my guys.”

The No. 4-ranked Eagles hung close with the Cadets for a half. Nixa led 8-7 midway through the first and trailed 12-11 after the opening stanza.

Late in the second quarter, Jordyn Turner hit a 3-pointer to give Nixa a 22-21 lead but Martin answered with a trey of his own nine seconds later to give CBC the lead for the final time. The Cadets led 31-27 at halftime and built a double-digit lead late in the third on an 8-2 run to close the quarter.

Nixa entered the fourth down by 12.

“They made it hard for us to do certain things, it’s hard to get a sense of their quickness, pressure and speed,” Osborne said. “Their athleticism and length gave us a lot of problems and it’s something we just can't simulate in practice, it's something that we have a hard time simulating with part of our schedule. I’m proud of our guys, they battled and fought on. You know, as poorly as we played actually and turned the ball over in the first half, we're only down four at the half. So, I thought we're in pretty good shape."

“They just presented a lot of problems for us and a lot of the people they play. They were a lot better team than we were. I'll give them full credit. They're well-coached, they took away stuff that we do well. It wasn't from lack of effort, our kids played extremely hard and represented our school well.”

CBC shut down the Eagles’ top two scorers, Kael Combs and Colin Ruffin. The two were a combined 1-for-6 from the field and finished with 15 total points – thanks to Ruffin going 9-for-11 from the free-throw line.

The duo averaged a combined 31 points coming into the semifinals and scored a combined 37 in a win over Staley on Thursday.

Nixa relied heavily on Turner, who hit 6-of-7 3s and was 7-for-8 from the field for 20 points.

With the win Friday night, CBC became only the seventh school in MSHSAA history to win both the football and basketball state title in the same school year. Stanberry accomplished it last in 2015 winning the 8-man title and then the Class 1 title. CBC is only the second school to do so in the largest classification, joining Rockhurst in the 1986-87 season. Kendall Huston and Justus Johnson were starters on both the Cadets football and basketball teams.

Third-place game

Staley 67, Chaminade College Prep 46

After an off-night shooting 3-pointers, Staley went 4-for-5 in the first quarter and that set the tone for the victory in the third-place game Friday morning at Hammons Student Center.

The Falcons hit 10 of 19 3-pointers in the victory – 52.6 percent – a far cry from the 15.4 percent the team shot in a semifinal loss to Nixa the night before. Larry Parker III had two of the 3s, while Kyan Evans and Asa Bridges each had one. A 14-4 run late in the first helped Staley build a 25-12 advantage.

“I felt like yesterday we got a little too amped up at the beginning, you know,” said Bridges, who had 10 points, one of four in double figures. “Today, we just kind of settled down and focused and knocked down shots.”

After the fast start, Staley only outscored the Red Devils by eight points the remainder of the contest. A 3-pointer by Nilavan Daniels early in the second quarter helped trimmed the Falcon lead down to eight but Evans followed with a layup to start an 8-0 run that took the lead to 15.

The Falcons (27-5) led by 17 at the break (51-34) but a final charge from the Red Devils (24-8) came in the third. Daniels scored four of five points to pull Chaminade within 39-30, but that was the final single-digit deficit.

Daniels finished with a game-high 21, while grabbing eight rebounds and getting three steals.

“We came out wanting to force them to hit some shots,” Chaminade coach Frank Bennett said. “Some early were by some unconventional guys. We got within eight a couple of times, just never got enough in the baskets that would make it closer.”

Staley brings the school’s first state trophy back to Kansas City, while the other three schools had a combined 26 trophies heading into this tournament.

For Chaminade, returning to the state tournament for the second year in a row might’ve been a little unexpected.

The Red Devils lost Damien Mayo and Tarris Reed Jr. to Link Year Prep in Branson before the season. Both were Class 6 all-state picks, while Reed Jr. was the Missouri Basketball Coaches Association Class 6 player of the year as a junior.