Chaminade tops Oak Park in Missouri Class 6 boys basketball semifinals
COLUMBIA, MISSOURI – For the fourth time in school history, Chaminade has reached the Missouri boys basketball championship game.
The Red Devils shot the ball well in the third quarter and that carried over into the final stanza in a 66-55 win over Oak Park on Friday night at Mizzou Arena.
Chaminade won titles in Class 5 in 2009 and in 2016 and a win against Cardinal Ritter would be the first in Class 6.
The Red Devils, ranked No. 4 in the final regular season poll from the Missouri Basketball Coaches Association, will have to extend their win streak to 10 games.
The last time they lost? That was on Feb. 7 against Cardinal Ritter — the opponent on the opposite side of the bracket for Saturday’s 8 p.m. title tilt.
Ritter won the regular season game, 61-38.
City bragging rights will be on the line along with the hardware.
“St. Louis is a community that, you know, has produced a lot of talent,” said Chaminade coach Frank Bennett, who coached the Red Devils' last championship team in 2016. “We are proud of our talent, at Chaminade, we are proud of Jayson Tatum, Bradley Beal, David Lee, Tyler Cook and everybody out there. But yeah, there’s a certain level of pride that is associated with representing your area. Then get into the game and go head-to-head with guys we know well. It is an honor and something that we won’t take for granted.”
Chaminade (22-9) trailed after the first and second quarters against the top-ranked Northmen.
Oak Park (27-4) held a 30-26 lead at intermission but a 7-2 surge by the Red Devils gave them the lead early in the third.
The game went back and forth from there before the Kansas City school took a 41-39 lead on a pair of free throws from Isaac Brown with 1:54 left in the quarter.
That broke tie No. 6 in the contest.
Seconds later tied it and then a pair of free throws from Jonny Jordan gave the Red Devils the lead for good.
Chaminade closed the third quarter on a 9-0 run. Tricy Collins added two baskets in the final 14 seconds, the latter came at the buzzer to make it 48-41 going into the fourth.
The Red Devils hit seven of nine shots from the field in the third and the two misses were both 3-pointers. Meanwhile, Oak Park hit only three of 12 shots in the third quarter and were 1-for-6 from the 3-point line.
The Northmen struggled when the Red Devils went to a zone defense.
“They switched to zone, which we were well prepared for, but we didn’t execute against the zone,” Oak Park coach Sherron Collins said. “We are a team that takes pride in our 3-pointer shooting. We were 5-for-29 against the zone and that is kind of disaster right there.”
In the second half, the Northmen went 8-for-31 from the field and hit just one of 18 3-point attempts.
And when they missed, they often didn’t get another look. Chaminade dominated the boards with a 43 to 30 total margin — 34 of which were defensive rebounds.
Jahadi White and Collin Perry both had double-doubles for the Red Devils. Perry had 12 points and 18 rebounds, while White had 17 points and 11 rebounds coming in off the bench. Chaminade's bench outscored Oak Park, 26-11.
“I know my team is counting on me and I count on my team at times,” Perry said. “So, I’m going to do whatever I can to help my team out. If that means grab a rebound that is what I will do. If I got to play defense, that is what I will do. Those are my brothers. So, I’m going to help them any way I can to win a game.”
Oak Park, which had an eight-game winning streak snapped, trailed by seven points going into the fourth and pulled within four on three different occasions. Each time, Perry answered.
The latter came after a layup by Corbin Allen, who had 17 points and 12 rebounds, with 2:53 to play.
Bennett called a timeout and out of the respite, Perry had a layup and drew a foul. He made the free throw with 2:27 left to make it 56-49.
Caleb Estes hit a 3-pointer — the only one of the half for the Northmen — with 1:34 left to make it 59-54.
Forced to foul, Chaminade responded by hitting six straight free throws to lock up the win.
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- Cody Thorn | latsch@scorebooklive.com | @SBLiveMiz
