Hartville has waited a long time for a trip to Columbia in mid-March.
As a program, the Eagles hadn’t been to the Final Four since 1998. In fact, the only person on Hartville’s bench with any hardware is Maggie Reed; the wife of Coach Brett Reed and Hartville's bookkeeper.
Mrs. Reed hit the game-winning 3 to give Hartville the Class 2 state championship in 2007.
On Thursday Hartville took the second to last step to winning the program’s first-ever state title with a 63-33 rout of Wellington-Napoleon in the MSHSAA Class 2 semifinals at the Hearnes Center.
“I can’t even describe it with words how excited I am and I know these guys are too,” said Reed. “To beat a team of Wellington’s caliber by 30 is nothing short of extraordinary effort on these guys’ part. It’s a dream come true. We wanted to be here and now we have 32 minutes to get it done.”
Wellington came in ranked No. 2 in the latest state polls, but it was clear from the beginning that the game wouldn’t quite meet the hype.
Hartville started the game with a 13-0 run, 10 of which came off the red-hot right-hand of 6-foot-3 senior Ryan Ward.
Ward scored a game-high 26 points in 26 minutes, shooting 11-for-12 from the field and 3-for-3 from 3-point range. Ward, who has more than 2,000 career points, is the son of two coaches, neither of whom has been to the Final Four as a coach.
His dad, Doug, played on Rogersville’s Class 2 runner-up team in 1986.
“We were worried about him coming in; he’s got good length and he’s got good size,” said Wellington coach Todd Shannon. “I thought he really hurt us when we went zone and didn’t do a good job of finding him and closing out on him. We knew he could play in or out and when you give kids like that a look they’re going to knock it down.”
Wellington did recover from Hartville’s initial blow with an 11-5 spurt, cutting the deficit to just four, 22-18, but the Eagles ended the half with a 10-0 run, started by a pair of Ward 3s and capped by Jace Keith’s buzzer-beating tip-in to take a 32-18 lead into the half.
Ward finished with 19 points in the first 16 minutes, shooting a perfect 8-for-8 from the field.
The Tigers shot just 6-for-17 in the second half and finished with more turnovers (8) than field goals.
“We probably haven’t seen pressure quite like that,” said Shannon. “We tried to simulate it for two or three days in practice but that’s hard to do. I thought we really wanted to attack off the dribble, but we settled for jump shots and when you’ve got guys getting in your shorts like that and you settle for jump shots that makes it tough. We knew they were good defensively, they rotate well, take charges and they’re quick. It was hard to simulate.”
Hartville outscored Wellington 31-15 in the second half shooting 10-for-17 (59%) as a team.
Four Eagles finished in double figures. Grant Dedmon scored 13 points, while junior guards Dune Piper and Jace Keith scored 11 and 10 respectively, combining to shoot 7-for-9 from the field. Piper also collected five steals.
It wasn't all good news as junior Deric Jones is thought to have broken his nose during a collision in the third quarter, but he is expected to play on Saturday against Iberia.
Iberia beat Bloomfield in overtime in the other Class 2 semifinal, setting up a rematch between the two. Hartville beat Iberia 69-45 on Feb. 6. The Rangers have won nine straight since that game.
The Ward family knows Iberia well.
Doug Ward was the coach at Newburg, Iberia’s Frisco League rival, before going to Hartville. The Wards were 0-6 against the Rangers from 2012-15.
“I’ve played against Iberia my whole life and most of the time I’ve been on the wrong end of it,” said Ryan Ward. “The last time I was on the right side and I really hope we can get one more.”
Iberia has been to the Final Four in three of the last four years, finishing as the Class 2 runner-up in 2014.
With 6-foot-10 Missouri Southern signee Dexter Frisbie (20.5 PPG, 9.7 RPG) and 6-foot-7 Riley Halley (22.1 PPG, 8 RPG), both seniors have been a key part of each Final Four run, Reed knows that Saturday’s outcome will be anything but a given.
“It wasn’t easy the first time we played them and it won’t be easy this time either,” said Reed. “They present their own set of challenges; they’re big and we’re not. It’ll our quickness against their size. We are looking forward to it, we know it’s going to be a battle and we know they’re a good basketball team. We’ll practice tomorrow and we’ll be ready to go on Saturday.”
Hartville and Iberia will tipoff at 4:30 p.m. on Saturday at Mizzou Arena.
Hartville 63, Wellington 33
Hartville 14-18-19-12 – 63
Wellington 7-11-9-6 – 33
Hartville (28-4) – R. Ward 26, Dedmon 13, Piper 11, J. Keith 10, Jones 3.
Wellington (29-2) – T. Shannon 9, Hughes 8, Reynolds 4, Green 4, Gray 4, Hill 4.
