Photo by Ron Rigdon
SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – If the Cardinal Ritter boys basketball team had a weakness, Ladue was going to find it.
During the Class 5 state championship game, Ladue gave Cardinal Ritter a different defensive look seemingly every trip down the floor, sometimes switching from zone to man-to-man mid-possession.
The Rams pressed full court, trapped in the half court and eventually came to a disheartening conclusion.
There were no weaknesses to be found.
Derrick Rivers scored 17 points, Nashawn Davis added 16 and Cardinal Ritter shot a blistering 68 percent from the field as the Lions defeated Ladue 65-54 Saturday to win the Class 5 championship at the Show-Me-Showdown in Springfield.
Cardinal Ritter (28-4) won its third state title in four seasons and 10th overall, improving its record in state championship games to a perfect 10-0.
“I’m aware of that. That may one of the only stats that I do know right off the top,” Cardinal Ritter coach Ryan Johnson said. “Vashon is the leader down in the city but we’re right there. Our tradition is just as great.”
The road to a 10th state title certainly had some hiccups along the way. An overtime loss at CBC on Feb. 16 put an increased focus on what the Lions needed to do moving forward.
“That loss brought a different ‘dawg’ out of us. It showed us that we can be beat if we’re not doing what our coaches are telling us to do,” Davis said.
In the state semifinal, Cardinal Ritter trailed Pembroke Hill by 11 points in the fourth quarter before rallying to win.
“They’re young, and they’ve been tested all year. It was big for them to respond like they did,” Johnson said.
And the young Lions, who started five juniors in the state title game on Saturday, responded to every test Ladue threw at them.
Ladue began the game in a 1-3-1 zone defense, switched to a pressure man-to-man, and after the Rams made a basket, pressed full court before dropping into a 2-3 zone.
“We were just trying to keep them off-balance and see what was working and effective in the first half,” Ladue coach Chad Anderson said. “At the end of the day, we finished with our man-to-man defense that we relied on all year.”
Ladue forced Cardinal Ritter into 19 turnovers during the contest, but when the Lions found a shot, it normally found the bottom of the net.
Cardinal Ritter went 5-for-6 from the floor to open the game, with five different players scoring.
“We play solid under pressure and we adjust,” Davis said. “We stick to our keys and trust what our coaches tell us.”
Ladue (26-6), which set a record for wins in a season, earned the right to play in the state title game by playing fast, often faster than its opponents were comfortable playing.
On Saturday, the Rams ran into a Cardinal Ritter team that found a fast pace to its liking. A midcourt steal and dunk by Davis spurred a six-point run that was bookended by a fast break layup by freshman Oscar Patterson, as the Lions opened a 24-10 lead.
Normally a strong 3-point shooting team, Ladue missed its first 11 shots from long range before senior Fischer Thompson drained a right-wing triple in the waning seconds of the half to put the Rams into the locker room trailing 26-15.
“The first half, we obviously struggled to hit shots. We had good looks, we had layups that we missed and open 3’s that we missed,” Anderson said. “In the second half, our defensive intensity picked up, we got a little more aggressive and that sparked us to get more confident offensively.”
The Cardinal Ritter lead was at 13 points when Ladue made its move. Sophomore Haydan Arnold knocked down a pair of triples and senior Jackson Freeman drained a 3-ball in transition as Ladue sliced the deficit to 39-34 with 2 minutes 43 seconds remaining in the third quarter.
But Davis and the battle-tested Lions allowed the score to get no closer. Davis began a personal 7-0 run with a three-point play in the lane. He followed it with a putback of his own missed shot on the next possession and then dropped in a tough, contested layup to increase the lead to 46-34 after three quarters.
“It’s all about trust. I know my teammates trust me to take the shots that I take, and they know I can make them,” Davis said.
Rivers made a three-pointer to open the final quarter, then made a steal and fed junior Ryan Atkins to build a 17-point advantage early in the fourth.
The explosive Rivers averaged 10.1 points per game over his first 23 games this season. He averaged 19 points in the four contests from the district championship game through to the state title game.
“Last year we lost that first (semifinal) game to (Webster Groves), and I knew I had to come into this playoff with a different energy, ready to go every single game to be able to get that ring,” Rivers said.
Ladue, which was led by senior Jack Steinbach’s 16 points and six assists, earned its highest finish in program history and wore second-place medals home from Springfield.
“I’m super-proud of this group. They fought hard and they battled,” Anderson said. “The way they came out in the second half really showed toughness and grit and showed the type of team we’ve had all year.”
Cardinal Ritter made 25-of-37 shots from the field in earning its third state title in four seasons. To shoot 68 percent from the field in a championship setting showed an uncanny ability for the young Lions to seize the moment.
“To get that done in a championship game, it’s a testament to them listening to coaches, not settling and taking great shots,” Johnson said. “To do that at this moment, a coach couldn’t ask for anything better.”