Photo by Gordon Radford
SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – As a gesture of appreciation, the Vashon coaching staff gifted each of their players a new pair of sneakers prior to the Missouri state basketball tournament.
“We work them hard, and we wanted to reward them for getting to this point,” Vashon coach Tony Irons said.
While the Wolverines looked sharp in their colorful, new LeBrons during their narrow semifinal win Thursday, their shooting touch did not, and after a sub-par performance from both the free throw line and the three-point arc, Irons joked that those shoes may remain in their gym bags for the championship game.
“If we shoot this bad, we won’t be in them tomorrow,” he said.
At the championship morning shootaround, Vashon proved to the coaches that the new shoes were ready to make shots.
“We put up a lot of shots at shootaround (Friday) morning. We knew our shots were going to fall in the game,” senior Jayden Nicholson said.
Nicholson knocked down one of Vashon’s four three-pointers in the first quarter, and the Wolverines excelled from the field and at the free throw line in a convincing 64-37 victory over Park Hills Central to win the Class 4 boys basketball championship at the Show-Me-Showdown in Springfield.
Vashon (25-7) won its fourth consecutive state championship and sixth since 2016.
“It’s incredible. To see these guys from their freshman year to their senior year, to see how much they’ve grown and how much better they’ve gotten, it’s a testament to them and their leadership,” Irons said in reference to the Vashon seniors.
It was apparent Vashon was wearing shot-making shoes from the outset.
Dierre Hill Jr. and Nicholson drained left-wing triples in the opening minutes against the 1-2-2 zone defense of Park Hills Central to build a quick 8-2 lead.
Trey Williams, who went 0-for-6 from three-point range during the semifinal on Friday, drained threes on successive possessions to stake Vashon to an 18-7 lead.
When senior Kennard Davis drained a corner three early in the second quarter, the Wolverines were 5-for-8 from three and built a commanding 25-11 advantage.
The Wolverines were only 2-for-14 from long distance during their 49-45 semifinal win over Father Tolton the previous day.
“Shootaround this morning was very good,” Davis reiterated.
Vashon’s first half lead ballooned to 33-15 before Park Hills Central senior Jobe Smith started to bring the Rebels back.
Smith sliced his way into the lane, drew contact and helped Park Hills Central score the last seven points of the half to cut the deficit to 33-22. The Rebels entered the locker room with a tinge of momentum and a sense of survival after withstanding a Vashon shooting exhibition in the opening 16 minutes.
“I felt good. We started to come back in the second quarter and gave our team some hope,” Park Hills Central senior Kendall Horton said.
But realizing they were one half away from a fourth consecutive title, the Wolverines zeroed in on the prize.
“We talked about everything we had to do to keep ourselves right,” Nicholson said.
Those things included taking advantage of height mismatches and playing signature Vashon defense.
The Wolverines attempted only three more shots from behind the arc for the reminder of the game as Davis and seniors Cameron Stovall and Anthoni Sandford connected on interior passes and powered the ball to the rim.
Two nifty post moves by Davis opened the third quarter and prompted an 8-0 run in the first 1:08 of the second half as Vashon continued to assert its will.
The Wolverines’ pressure defense made a slight adjustment in the second half, sagging back to limit the drives of the quick Park Hills Central guards rather than sticking to them tightly. Bryant, who averaged 22.2 points during the season, was held to 13 points on 3-for-17 shooting.
“We didn’t deny them and come after them the same way we come after a lot of people,” Irons said. “We kind of contained it a little bit more because we knew how good they were getting downhill, so we just wanted them to take contested shots.”
Vashon held Park Hills Central to 31 percent shooting from the field, including 6-for-24 in the second half.
A complete performance by Vashon was on display – stifling defense, transition baskets, inside scoring and long-range shooting. The Wolverines were equally efficient at the free throw line, draining their first 11 free throws on Friday. They were 17-of-19 from the line with two minutes remaining in the game after going 11-for-21 in the semifinal.
“Offensively, we wanted to exploit some of our size. I thought our guys did a good job crashing the boards and getting to the free throw line, and we shot free throws way better than we shot them (Thursday), which is a blessing,” Irons said.
Irons credited a challenging national schedule, which included state champions from Texas, New York, Illinois and Utah, for prepping the Wolverines for another championship run.
“Our schedule was tough, and we were all looking at each other kind of crazy at the beginning of the year, but they never wavered,” Irons said.
For the Vashon seniors, the championship performance on Friday added to their highly-decorated high school careers.
“We knew if we worked hard, it was going to happen,” Davis said. “We’re the first group to four-peat in Vashon history. It’s our legacy.”