Your online home for Joplin area sports coverage.

HISTORIC WIN: Big second half leads College Heights Christian boys to first-ever district title

By:
Jason Peake

WEBB CITY, Mo. — A stunning second half comeback led the College Heights Christian boys basketball team to a historic victory.

Third-seeded College Heights overcame an early 11-point deficit and used a dominant second half to knock off top-seeded Liberal 69-45 on Friday in the championship game of the Class 2 District 12 tournament at Webb City High School.

It’s College Heights’ first-ever district championship in boys basketball. 

“I don’t honestly think I can put it into words,” College Heights sophomore Curtis Davenport said when asked about his team’s accomplishment. “It means so much to us because we’ve been working so hard to get here. I’m speechless honestly.” 

“This is the first time the boys team has ever been in a district championship game,” College Heights coach Eric Johnson said. “We’re real excited for these kids and for the school. Not everybody gets to enjoy this type of opportunity.”

College Heights will meet District 11 champion Crane at 6 on Tuesday in a sectional contest at Carthage.

It was a tale of two halves for College Heights.

Things weren’t looking good, as the Cougars trailed 29-18 in the second quarter and were down 33-27 at the break. 

But College Heights outscored Liberal 42-12 in the second half. 

The remarkable turnaround resulted in a win to remember for the Cougars. 

“The first half was a little rough, but in the second half, we came out and blew the doors open and the rest is history,” Davenport said. “We didn’t have the best first half, but we were going to come out and change that. We tried to pound the ball inside, get every rebound and get easy layups.”

College Heights used a 21-4 third quarter surge to take control. 

“They out-played us in the first half on both ends of the floor,” Johnson said. “We looked nervous in the first half. We’ve never been in this situation. We just had to pick up the intensity on defense. We didn’t chew them out at halftime. We just told them what we needed to do better. They went out and did it. I think the intensity picked up and we extended our defense more than we did in the first half. That caused them a lot of problems. We got the ball to the hole and we had the size advantage and we took advantage of it. All of our kids stepped up.”

NAMES & NUMBERS

In a stellar performance, the 6-foot-5 Davenport had a double-double with 21 points and 17 rebounds. Davenport made 9-of-13 field goal attempts and scored 14 points in the second half.

“I was really nervous before the game,” Davenport said. “I had butterflies in my stomach. I honestly felt like I was going to throw up. I just had to tell myself I was ready to go and ready to face anything out there.” 

Junior guard Miller Long scored 19 points on 7-of-16 shooting, with 16 coming in the second half. The 6-3 Long had a pair of dunks.

Hagen Beck, a 6-4 junior, scored 18 points on 8-of-12 shooting and also grabbed eight boards. Ethan Meeks, a 6-6 junior, contributed 10 rebounds, while junior guard Ethan Adel had eight points and five assists. 

The Cougars made 28-of-54 field goal attempts (52 percent), with most of their shots coming in the paint, as CHC made only two 3-pointers. 

College Heights out-rebounded Liberal 48-29.

Caleb Suschnick scored 16 points to lead Liberal. Gunner Miller added nine points and seven rebounds. The Bulldogs shot 30 percent from the floor (16-of-54), including 7-of-26 from 3-point range. All seven made treys came in the first half. 

 

GAME RECAP

Liberal’s Suschnick was on fire in the first period, scoring 11 points with three treys, but the Cougars stayed within striking distance. 

Hoops from Adel and Davenport cut Liberal’s lead to 17-14 by the end of the first quarter. 

Beck had seven of College Height’s first 14 points, as the Bulldogs focused on limiting Long’s touches with a box-and-one defense.

The Bulldogs pulled away at 29-18 after a 7-0 run, but the Cougars regrouped after a timeout and rattled off five straight points to keep the deficit manageable.

Liberal’s Matt Boehne hit a long 3-pointer to give his team an eight-point cushion, but Adel’s hoop in the lane trimmed the Cougars’ deficit to 33-27 at intermission.

Liberal hit seven treys in the first half, but the Bulldogs did not make a trey after the break. 

Things suddenly changed in the third period, as fired-up College Heights outscored Liberal 21-4 in the game-changing quarter.

College Heights began the second half on a 17-2 run to take a 44-35 lead. The spurt was capped by Long’s steal and two-handed dunk, Long’s old-fashioned 3-point play and Beck’s hoop in transition.

The Cougars led 48-37 entering the fourth quarter. 

College Heights converted the first eight points of the final frame, with a Long trey capping the run, to give the Cougars a comfortable 56-37 lead.

Early in the final frame, Liberal had made just one field goal in the second half against the taller Cougars.  

The night ended with the Cougars celebrating a historic win. 

“I’m not going to lie, this feels awesome,” Davenport said. “We’re a tight-knit group and this means a lot to us.” 

 

Share:

Share on facebook
Facebook
Share on twitter
Twitter
Share on pinterest
Pinterest
Share on linkedin
LinkedIn

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Table of Contents

On Key

Related Posts