By Michael Cignoli (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
WILLARD – The Parkview Vikings executed their game plan to perfection for a lengthy stretch of their Class 5 District 6 semifinal on Tuesday night — and it was more than enough to advance.
Elijah Whitley led four Vikings in double-figures with 25 points and Parkview used a dominant first-half run to defeat Webb City, 75-54, at Willard High School. The Vikings outscored the Cardinals 20-1 over portions of the first and second quarters to build a 23-point halftime lead that Webb City never threatened, securing Parkview’s position in the championship game.
The Vikings (19-8) will play top-seeded Bolivar (24-4) at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Willard for the title.
“What you saw in the first half is 100 percent exactly what we want to be,” Parkview coach Landon Cornish said. “When we’re playing well, we’re able to do that. I thought they did a pretty good job of doing that all night.”
Parkview was trailing 9-8 midway through the first quarter when the Cardinals missed a layup, the Vikings grabbed the rebound and Whitley hit a go-ahead 3-pointer to jumpstart the run.
Things snowballed from there.
The Vikings led 28-10 barely a minute into the second quarter, capitalizing on several Webb City turnovers to continue to drive their momentum.
By the end of the night, the Vikings had made 11 3-pointers – Whitley had six – and Marcus Price (17 points), Tomas Hill (15) and Shane Glass (12) had all scored in double-figures.
“We really distributed the ball and shared the ball,” Whitley said. “We attacked the gaps, kicked it out to the open men and just knocked it down.”
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The success on offense amplified the defensive pressure, and Webb City never broke through.
“We really like to use our athleticism and our length and defensive ability,” Cornish said. “When we’re getting touches and deflections, we get easier baskets. When we’re really active defensively, that kick starts our offense. We made them turn it over there a couple of times. I thought our effort was really good to get a lot of back tips. We had some steals and that gets us going. The guys played hard.”
The Cardinals (19-8) entered the loaded Class 5 District 6 tournament as the No. 3 seed despite being ranked sixth in the latest state rankings. Top-seeded Bolivar (ranked third), second-seeded Parkview (eighth) and fourth-seeded Neosho (ninth) were also listed in the polls, making the district the only one – in any class – with four state-ranked boys teams.
Now there are two, and they will meet to determine which advances to the state quarterfinals.
“We wanted to play a really tough schedule to prepare ourselves to get to that point,” Cornish said. “We wanted to play in a lot of big moments all year long, which I felt like we did, so no moment was going to be too big when we needed to come out. They were locked in and ready to go. Guys shot the ball well, moved the ball well. We were unselfish. We had really good deflections and steals in the first half. A lot of assists, so we’re playing together like that and making the game easy for one another. I didn’t feel like we forced anything. We got kind of sloppy in the fourth quarter when it was super late, but they played extremely well. We’re excited to have a chance to keep playing.”
Bolivar beat Parkview by 16 points in January, but the Vikings have won eight in a row.
“I think it’s going to be a pretty good game,” Price said. “We do have some of the tools we need to beat them, but they’re a good team. They’ve got good players. Kyle Pock is a 6-foot-7 guard. That’s something ridiculous. But we’re going to figure out what we have to do to stop them.”
Treyton Roets led Webb City with 15 points. Kaden Turner added 12 in the final game of his high school career, but the Cardinals were unable to overcome Parkview’s early run.
“It seemed like we got a little bit out of sorts,” Cardinals coach Jason Horn said. “We missed a layup and they were able to hit a three off of that. It kind of sent us into a spiral. I don’t think we ever really got lined up in our press break early in that first quarter. You give a good team too many opportunities and they’re going to capitalize on it. I think that’s one of the better teams we’ve played this year – if not the best team we’ve played.”
Horn will be watching the rematch between Parkview and Bolivar closely.
“Whoever wins the district, I’ll be shocked if they don’t go to the Final Four,” Horn said.
