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By Kary Booher
Springfield, MO – Monty Johal, Jordan Walton and the Glendale Falcons sure know how to ruin a party.
The Parkview Vikings got the band back together so to speak, honoring its All-Decades team of the past 60 years, and then had Glendale on the ropes with an eight-point advantage late in the fourth quarter.
Instead, the Falcons flipped the script, with lanky sophomore Winston Quinn hitting a go-ahead 3-pointer as part of a 15-2 run and sending Glendale to a 92-84 victory at Parkview High School.
Johal and Walton went for 30 and 25 points for Glendale, which converted 13 of 16 free throws in the final 2:05 in a game that its coach and players wondered will begin a run that echoes late last season.
“It says we are resilient team,” said Walton, who finished with eight assists and four rebounds and scored 12 fourth-quarter points, eight at the free-throw line. He later added, “We definitely faced some adversity, and I think that’s what helped us make our tournament run last year. We were able to deal with it.”
“We talk about adversity all the time in practice, and it was good to get some adversity in a game.”
Said Johal, “It shows we’re getting there.”
Now 17-6 overall and 6-1 in the Ozark Conference, Glendale won a road game on a night when it seemed to belong to Parkview.
For one, in celebrating its 60th anniversary, the school announced its All-Decades team of Virgle Frederick (1956-1966), Stan Jinks (1966-1976), Greg Cavener (1976-1986), Matt Miller (1986-1996), Anthony Moore (1996-2006) and Erik Durham (2006-2016).
Plus, it was senior night.
Unfortunately for Parkview, the Vikings could only wonder what might have been. They kept from getting blown out early, trading buckets in one stretch as Glendale kept building a series of nine-point leads.
Senior Brady Hill finished with 21 points, including 12 alone in the second quarter – all on 3-pointers and all in the final 2 minutes before halftime.
With his shots swishing through, the Vikings found fuel for 42-25 run into the fourth quarter. In essence, the Vikings flipped a 39-30 deficit before halftime into a 72-64 advantage with 6 ½ minutes left to play.
Defensively, they relied heavily on a match-up zone installed by coach Landon Cornish at halftime.
“We did find our rhythm,” said Parkview senior J.T. Brown, who finished with 28 points and played the final 10 minutes with four fouls. “But we got into the moment and couldn’t finish it out.”
Said Glendale coach Brian McTague, “At the end of the third quarter, I said, ‘This is good for us. It’s good for us to face some adversity and how we’re going to win these games in the next couple of weeks.”
Glendale has had contributions from all over in the season’s second half, with Quinn picking one heck of a moment himself. His 3-pointer leapfrogged the Falcons in front 79-77 with about 2 minutes left, and they hit free throws from there.
“He’s hit big shots for us all season long. He hasn’t gotten as many minutes as I’d like for him to have so far, but he’s put up big numbers in JV games,” McTague said.
Glendale played a press defense throughout, ratcheting up the pressure late in third quarter. The Vikings had weathered a similar style in a win last week at Hillcrest and navigated through the Falcons’ defense through the heart of the game. But …
“I don’t know if it was a little bit of fatigue. But some of those plays we were making in the third quarter, when we were on that run and finishing those layups, we weren’t finishing and we turned it over a couple of times,” Cornish said. “When you’re playing against them, you’ve really got to take care of the basketball and score every time.”
Parkview is now 15-7 and 5-2 in the OC with games remaining at Waynesville and at Lebanon.
Glendale closes out the regular season with a home game against Joplin, plays at Rolla and then hosts Central on Feb. 21.
Glendale 92, Parkview 84
Glendale 22 25 17 28 – 92
Parkview 15 28 24 17 — 84
Glendale – Monty Johal 30, Jordan Walton 25, Jaxon Davis 18, Josh Call 2, Garrett Freeman 8, Dylan Metivier 4, Winston Quinn 5.
Parkview – J.T. Brown 28, Brady Hill 21, Dontae Taylor 8, Lencorya Grady 5, Dasu Elliot 2, Njenga Chatman 5, Gage Clark 12, Josh Cunningham 2.
