Drew McMillin leads Republic to home tournament title

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By Michael Cignoli (For OzarksSportsZone.com)

REPUBLIC — With the school record for career 3-pointers already firmly in his grasp, there’s no question Republic senior Drew McMillin is one of the region’s top scorers from beyond the arc.

On Saturday afternoon, he showed he’s excellent from anywhere on the floor.

McMillin scored a game-high 30 points without hitting a single 3-pointer to lead the Tigers to a 61-53 victory over Parkview in the championship game of the 56th Annual Republic Invitational.

“Because he has made so many threes and he is a good shooter, I think he gets labeled as a shooter,” Tigers coach Tim Brown said. “He’s just a dang good basketball player. He’s a stud.”

McMillin, who hit 10 field goals and was 10-for-12 from the free-throw line, was outscoring the rest of the Tigers combined until the final minute of regulation and is a major reason Republic is off to a 4-0 start. After defeating Helias Catholic in their home opener on Nov. 24, the Tigers picked up a big win over Glendale and held off Rolla this week to reach the tournament final.

“We all just really want to win, no matter who scores,” McMillin said. “We could care less about all the highlight videos and all that fun stuff. We just like winning.”

CLICK HERE FOR PHOTOS OF THE GAME

There’s been no shortage of that in McMillin’s time at Republic, as the Tigers have amassed 63 wins since the start of his freshman season. With McMillin and sophomore guard Ahlante Askew leading the way, plus a supporting cast of role players, Brown thinks good things are in store.

“We’re really excited about our group,” the coach said. “We don’t try to overhype ourselves and sometimes we pride ourselves on maybe not getting as much attention as we feel like our kids deserve when you look at what our program has done. We just try to be a bunch of grinders.”

But after emerging as the top team in a tournament that also included Ozark, Glendale and Logan-Rogersville, any chance Republic had of flying under the radar has probably vanished.

“We learned we can hang with any style of team,” McMillin said. “Rolla plays more like us — scrappy, slow the game down a little bit. Then we play Parkview today and they just want to get after it and spread up and down the floor. I think we can play with any style of game.”

Saturday’s contest featured five lead changes in the first three minutes, but Republic took the lead for good on an early 9-0 run that started with a pull-up jumper from McMillin and a 3-pointer from Askew, who finished with 13 points and is poised to have a breakout season for the Tigers.

“(Askew is) going to be really special too,” Brown said. “It’s just really awesome to have a senior guard to show that sophomore along the way. Those two play so well together and they’re so likeable that their teammates buy in for them and help them be successful — and they would tell you that. They’re stars, but they’re selfless. That’s what makes this group special.”

McMillin enjoys having the opportunity to be a mentor to younger players — like former Republic star Broc Smith was to him — but says Askew’s natural talent makes his job relatively easy.

“Ahlante is already really good,” he said. “As you probably saw tonight, I don’t have to do too much mentoring with him. I just really like playing with him. We complement each other a lot.”

Devon McMillin and Avery Moody added six points apiece for the Tigers.

Elijah Whitley led Parkview with 20 points — including a game-high five 3-pointers — and Damien Harris chipped in 12. After beating Logan-Rogersville and Ozark earlier in the week, the Vikings surged in the fourth quarter with a 23-point performance, but never pulled within seven.

“We feel like when we’re able to get a lead and play with the lead with the guards that we have — and the buy-in we have from our other guys — we’re pretty hard to beat,” Brown said.

NOTES: Parkview took home a trophy as the tournament’s runner-up… Ozark rolled to a 87-60 victory over Rolla in the third-place game. … Logan-Rogersville defeated Glendale 62-59 to take fifth place, as senior Max Goff hit the game-winning 3-pointer with 1.4 seconds left in overtime. Glendale junior Carter Harrell sent the game to overtime by hitting a buzzer-beater.

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