By Michael Cignoli (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
MARIONVILLE — There is a significant roster overlap between the Miller volleyball team that won the state title this fall and the girls basketball team that hopes to do the same next month.
Of the nine Cardinals on the basketball team, only senior Payten Richardson was not on the volleyball squad that went 34-3-1 and won Miller’s first state title in any team sport since 1994.
The last Miller athlete to win an individual state championship? That would be Richardson’s brother, Presten, who won a golf title in 2019. And their father, John, is the most decorated male athlete in Miller history, winning five career state track and field titles — four in 1987 alone.
So when members of Miller’s basketball team gathered for lunch the other day, they made a vow to their teammate who has been surrounded by athletes with state championship rings.
“We were like ‘Hey, we’re going to get you a ring,’” Miller senior Claudia Hadlock said. “‘We’ve got one. We’re getting you one for basketball.’ She was like ‘Let’s do it.’ We’re just really excited. Just play our hardest and I think we can do what everybody wants us to do.”
For right now, the Cardinals will have to settle for another conference championship.
The Cardinals closed out their regular season with an emphatic 73-23 victory over Marionville on Tuesday, finishing alone atop the Southwest Conference with an undefeated 8-0 record.
Miller has won at least a share of the conference title in each of the past four seasons, winning three of the titles outright and splitting the fourth. The outgoing senior class — Richardson, Hadlock and Kaylee Helton — finished their high school careers with a 28-1 conference record, including a string of 17 consecutive victories since falling to Ash Grove on February 6, 2020.
CLICK HERE FOR PHOTOS OF THE GAME
For a team that has won three straight district titles and is hoping to reach the basketball Final Four for the first time since 2010, it’s an important milestone as they prepare for the postseason.
“It’s the first goal,” Hadlock said. “The first goal is conference champions. Then it’s districts, sectionals, quarterfinals. Then you play for the big ones. It’s important to win these little ones and just keep doing what we do best, which is winning. We want to play for that sectional, that quarterfinal, but one game at a time. You can’t overlook anyone. Everyone brings a different energy when it’s postseason. We just need to come out, play our hardest and play defense.”
The Cardinals had no problem with their defensive effort on Tuesday.
Ranked third in the state among Class 2 schools, the Cardinals (21-3) held Marionville (13-12, 2-6) to three points in the first half. Miller led 28-3 after one quarter, 40-3 at halftime and scored 36 consecutive points before the outmatched Comets broke up the run early in the third quarter.
“Coach (Sean) Price said in the locker room that this game dictates how the postseason is going to go,” Hadlock said. “If you bring the energy, postseason is probably going to go pretty good. If you don’t bring it out tonight, people are going to know they have a chance to beat you when it comes to districts, sectionals, quarterfinals, all that. He was like ‘Bring the energy and play hard and play your butts off.’ And I think we did a good job of that tonight.”
Price is also the coach of Miller’s boys basketball team, which played Marionville 15 minutes after the girls game ended, and referred a reporter’s questions to assistant coach Ryan White.
White touted the seniors for putting themselves in a position to win a fourth conference title.
“There’s not many teams that can do that,” White said. “For them to close it out – and in the way they did – it’s huge for them. We’ve said it and said it. Those girls are very, very talented. We don’t have to do much. They have the drive. They have the ability. They wanted to come win it and they did it. It’s a huge deal for those girls. I just hope we continue to do that going through districts.”
Hadlock scored a game-high 25 points, Helton added 17 and junior Alyssa Hill added 11 before Miller pulled the three of them – and Richardson – with 11.8 seconds left in the third quarter. The Cardinals, who only have four available substitutes, led 57-13 when those four starters exited.
“It’s tough,” White said. “It’s tough. We do have low numbers, so that’s some of it, but how do you balance playing for a state title, getting the most out of your girls the whole season or just getting in these blowouts, taking them out and hoping you get it done at the end of the year? That’s kind of our mentality. We have to play for as long as we can. Not to be mean, disrespectful or anything like that. We just feel like we have to play as long as we can to have that chance to win a state title.”
To get that opportunity, Miller would first need to win the Class 2 District 12 championship.
The top-seeded Cardinals have a first-round bye and will face Wheaton or Verona at 6 p.m. Monday in Verona. The Bulldogs (seeded fourth) and Wildcats (fifth) play at noon on Saturday.
A win would send them to the district title game, where they would face either College Heights Christian (second), Marionville (third) or Purdy (sixth) for a berth in the state tournament.
The District 12 champion — whoever it is — will face the District 11 champion in the sectional round. The top seed in that district is Blue Eye, the lone Class 2 team to beat Miller this year.
“The other day we had our last home game and we were all like ‘Oh, my gosh. This is starting to feel real now that we’re actually seniors and we’re going to be gone,’” Helton said. “We’re making sure that every minute counts because we know that we might not get many more.”
That kind of mentality already helped the Cardinals win one state title this school year.
“We all know what it feels like,” Helton said. “We want to get our other teammate there, too. For her sake, we want her to feel that, too. I think we know what it takes now. We know how hard we need to work. I think that will benefit us in the end.”
So, what does it take?
“In practice, we need to be going over the fundamentals and making sure that we’re sharp on everything,” Helton said. “But also at the same time, we need to be having fun. That’s really what happened in volleyball. Everyone was having a good time all the time.”
A conference title certainly helps in that department.
“It’s nice to win conference,” Hadlock said. “We have bigger goals than that, though. We wanted to bring it tonight to show people we are ready for districts. We’re ready for postseason.”
