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Red Wings muscle out Clarkton
POPLAR BLUFF, Mo. -- The Reindeer were pushed out of the MSHSAA Class 1 playoffs Tuesday night by a bigger Eminence team.
Clarkton, which started nobody taller than 5-foot-10, was outrebounded by 21 as Eminence rolled to a 89-62 win at Peters Gym.
"Rebounding has been an issue all year long," Clarkton coach Scottie Blackburn said. "Anything down low, the physical part of the game, we can't take care of it."
The fourth-ranked Red Wings (25-2) did with 6-3 senior Austin Brewer's 21 points and 11 more from 6-2 junior Blake Radosovich. Nathan Nichols, a 5-10 guard, added 19 points for Eminence, which faces Scott County Central at 1 p.m. Saturday at the Bess Activity Center.
Clarkton finished the season 20-7 and was led by senior Dustin Ferguson's 17 points.
"In the district finals we didn't get very many second chances," Eminence coach Pete McBride said. "We wanted to try to make up for that tonight."
Did they ever. The Red Wings outrebounded Clarkton 48-27 and opened the second half with a 15-5 run after leading 46-34 at the break.
Eminence shot 60 percent in the second half with the majority of those misses coming in the fourth quarter after staking a 73-46 lead.
"We had a good quarter," McBride said "We felt like we were on the verge of maybe putting them away there if we could come out in the third and the kids did that.
"They really responded and we had a good third quarter."
Clarkton never led and trailed Brody Fulk's 3 broke a 2-2 tie to start a 7-2 run for the Red Wings. The Reindeer pulled within four twice midway through the opening quarter but Eminence answered with points from Wade Conway, a 6-4 senior who finished with 11 points off the bench.
Jacob Redden cut Eminence's lead to 19-16 with 2:19 left in the first quarter on a fastbreak layin but the Red Wings put together an 11-4 run.
"We took bad shots in the first half," Blackburn said. "We were never patient enough in the first half to get the shots we wanted."
Eminence led 23-18 at the start of the second quarter but Ferguson pulled Clarkton to within 25-20. Brewer then got a putback off a missed 3 and later hit a jumper from the free-throw line to give the Red Wings their first 10-point lead with 6:08 left in the half.
Eminence led by as many as 13 in the second quarter but Jordan Jones hit a 3 for Clarkton with 1:15 left. Jay Williams answered with a putback and the Red Wings took a 12-point lead into halftime on Radosovich's hook shot in the closing seconds.
"I think we took good shots," McBride said. "We tried to work our offense, we thought we could get the ball inside first and the key was we took good shots and good shots usually go in."
The Red Wings had 11 different players score, hit half of their shots from the field and 27-of-36 free throws.
Clarkton shot 33 percent from the field, including 7-of-20 from 3-point range.
Jordan Jones scored 12 points for the Reindeer, who were making their first playoff appearance since 2003. Casey Redden added 11 points and fellow seniors Justin Brown and DeMarco Jones combined for 16 more.
"When games are that physical we ain't got a chance," Blackburn said. "We have no size, when you're allowed to be pushed around, then you don't have a chance."