By Staff

Weaubleau conquers Hermitage for first district title in years

Saturday was one to remember for the Weaubleau community.

In a heated Class 1 – District 6 championship game at Macks Creek High School, the Tigers pulled out a 54-50 victory over Hermitage – Weaubleau’s first district title since 2002, according to head coach Matt Johnson.

“We’ve worked hard all year long,” said Johnson. “Everything has led up to the district tournament. Our guys came out every game and played their hearts out. We were prepared for Hermitage and they came out, executed and everything worked out well for us.”

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Both teams got off to a slow start, ending the first quarter just 10-9 in Weaubleau’s favor.

Picking up the tempo soon after, the teams tied 24-24 at the half.

Based on three previous meetings with each other this year, the back-and-forth first half didn’t come as a surprise to Johnson.

Hermitage cruised to two wins against the Tigers in January, while Weaubleau narrowly took one victory in December.

Johnson grinned and said, “I was sure hoping it’d be close.”

It was the third quarter that gave the Tigers their lead that was just big enough to help them win it all. Five players combined for 21 points to lead the Hornets 45-34.

“We did a great job executing our game plan,” Johnson said. “Hermitage is a great team. They score from the paint really well, so we were just trying to shoot outside shots and live with the ones they made. And on offense, take care of the ball and finish the shots we got.”

Even with Hermitage’s attempted comeback in the final frame, they ran out of time, and Weaubleau earned its ticket to the Class 1 state tournament with the four-point win.

Hermitage head coach Joe Nicholson said, “I think if we would’ve played them like the last two times we played them, we would’ve come out on top today, and we just didn’t get that done.”

He added, “I’ve got to give them (Weaubleau) credit. They had a good game plan, came out and played well.”

Four of Weaubleau’s five scorers on the night scored in double numbers. Kaleb Minica scored a total of 17 points. Following, Gatlin Freeman had 14; Cameron Ott, 11; and Chris Ritter, 10.

Hermitage finished its season 22-7 and 6-1 in the Polk County League.

Next year, six players will have graduated.

“But we’ve got three starters back,” said Nicholson. “I expect us to be just as good next year, if not a little better than we are right now. We’ve got another good season coming. We’ll get over this in a week or two and then we’ll get back to work and get it done next year.”

As for Weaubleau (22-6), there are bigger fish to fry yet.

The Tigers will begin state tournament play by squaring off with state-ranked Walnut Grove (27-2) 7:45 p.m. Tuesday at Southwest Baptist University in Bolivar.

“We’re going to go in and worry about the things we can control,” said Johnson. “We’re going to go into that game and hopefully take care of the ball, get the ball where we want it and defensively, stop it.”