Vashon defeats John Burroughs in Missouri Class 4 boys basketball championship game, win fifth straight title

Nassir Binion scores game-high 25 points in championship victory

COLUMBIA, MISSOURI – One of the attributes of a Tony Irons squad is the defense and his Vashon boys basketball team put together another solid effort at the state’s biggest stage.

The Wolverines rolled to a fifth straight championship – with a one-year hiatus due to the tournament being canceled in 2020 – with a 68-37 victory over John Burroughs in the Class 4 championship game on Saturday at Mizzou Arena.

Up until the final 3 minutes of the game, Vashon (26-6) had held the Bombers to less than 30 points.

“That’s one of the foundations of who I am as a coach and just who we want our program to be,” said Irons, who won state title No. 8 overall as a head coach at Vashon and College Preparatory. “We always have a magic number. We feel if we can hold teams to 50 or less or in the low 50s we have a good chance to win. We’ve had different teams as far as offensive abilities and stuff like that but defense is just something that takes your kids wanting to do it, buying in and doing it and working hard at it. It just takes heart and determination.”

In all six losses this year for Vashon, the winning team had more than 50 points. It should be noted though, that five of those six teams brought home trophies in either Missouri, Georgia, Florida or Texas.

This was the second year in a row and the third title under Irons that the Wolverines allowed 40 or fewer points in the state title game.

Six players had at least two steals for the Wolverines, many of them coming in the pivotal second quarter that turned a 21-21 tie into a 32-22 lead at the break.

Vashon closed on a 11-1 run and Nassir Binion had nine points in that stretch, including back-to-back baskets to close the run. The first was set up a steal by Christian Williams, who then tossed an alley-oop to the senior who slammed it home. Then, six seconds later, Binion got the steal and provided another dunk.

The transfer from CBC, where he won a state title as a sophomore, had a game-high 25 points — after having 15 points in the semifinal win against Kansas City Central.

He started the game with a 3-pointer and had seven points — two less than John Burroughs (27-5) mustered in the opening 8 minutes.

“I knew it was going to be my night when we was at shooting around,” said the 6-foot-4 guard. “I kind of felt myself feeling really good. I went to sleep on time, I woke up after breakfast and just felt good at the shoot around. So, I already knew I had to turn up because yesterday I didn’t do good. I just wanted to win. I wanted to do anything I could to win.”

Missouri (MSHSAA) basketball state championships live updates: Day 4 scores, news, stories (3/16/2024)

Binion's early barrage helped the Wolverines take a 14-9 lead after the opening stanza. The Bombers — in the title game for the first time in the school’s 71-year history — battled back in the second.

Back-to-back 3s from Ramzi Salem and then a layup from Max Steinbach forged a tie at 19-19 with 4:46 left in the second quarter.

The Bombers had the ball with a chance to take the lead for the first time after Vashon traveled. A missed jump gave Vashon the ball back and Binion scored on a reverse layup.

Salem, a senior who had 21, had a pair of free throws with 3:22 left in the first half to bring the Bombers even again, this time at 21-21.

A tip-in basket by Binion — on one of his five offensive rebounds — gave the Wolverines the lead for good with 2:23 left.

“Nas is a very good player; I think he can play Division I basketball,” Burroughs coach Pee Wee Lenard said. “We knew he has been a catalyst offensively for Vashon. I think the first four or five minutes of the second quarter it was an even game. We had a stretch where they turned us over three or four times in a row and bam, we go from being tied to down two to (down) 10. Like, ‘Wow,’ It happened in less than two minutes. He was the guy that got a lot of it done for them. Kudos to him. He stayed busy and crashed the board; he was very active.”

The double-digit lead at the break expanded to more than 20 in the third quarter after consecutive dunks from Jordyn Richard and Dehrio McCaskill.

Nine players scored for Vashon and 11 saw action in the title game. Since MSHSAA went to using a class system with numbers in the 1973-74 season, only two other Class 4 or Class 4A title games featured fewer points by a team than Vashon allowed on Saturday.

Incidentally, those numbers were 32 by Bolivar against Vashon in 2017 and 27 by DeSmet in 2002 against … you guessed it, Vashon. That Vashon squad was led by Floyd Irons, Tony’s dad.

Floyd Irons won seven state titles — which was tied for third all-time in MSHSAA history with his son. Now, dad drops down to fourth all-time.

The state title is No. 15 overall for Vashon and the five championships in a row marks only the second time in MSHSAA history that such a run happened. Scott County Central holds the mark with 7 straight from 1985-1991 — which is one reason why the southeast Missouri powerhouse has the most boys titles in MSHSAA history with 18. 

Missouri Class 4 boys basketball championship: Vashon - John Burroughs

Photos by Nate Latsch

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- Nate Latsch | latsch@scorebooklive.com | @SBLiveMiz