By Kary Booher (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
LEBANON, Mo. – In the gym back home at Crocker High School, Adam Shockley, Ethyn Boorom and this year’s other eight seniors have had a banner staring them in the face for the past four years.
Call it a motivator, given it’s actually hung there commemorating the only time in boys basketball history that the Lions reached the state quarterfinals 13 years ago.
“I had two cousins on that team,” Boorom said, “and I have been dreaming of doing something like that since I was a little kid.”
The Lions have to dream no more after upending the Spokane Owls 77-69 in a Class 2 sectional Wednesday night at Lebanon High School, where Crocker rode four players in double figures – and a momentum-turning third quarter – into the quarterfinals.
Crocker (22-8) plays Purdy at 6:45 p.m. Saturday at the O’Reilly Family Event Center on the Drury University Campus.
“We’ve looked at that banner every day and we’ve been dreaming about this,” said Shockley, who scored 18 points, while four other seniors — Nathaniel Combs (16), Boorom (15), Logan Wright (13) and Brian Boorom (10) – also reached double figures.
Crocker had led 35-33 at halftime, but the turning point came soon enough as the Lions ratcheted up their half-court defense, leaning heavily on seniors Cameron Bryant and Dillon Porter.
Along the way, Crocker threw down 22 points in the stanza, holding Spokane to only 10 points – seven until the final seconds of the period — and forced six turnovers.
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In one stretch, they scored on six of seven possessions, with Combs’ 3-pointer super-charging the rally. On back-to-back turnovers, Shockey found his way for layups as the advantage hit 13 points. It reached 17 early in the fourth quarter.
The pressure defense has been a trademark of Crocker this season, and it’s probably to be expected, given practices feature nearly endless and exhausting 4-on-5 drills.
“We wore them down, in my opinion,” Crocker coach Phillip Gambill said. “We were pressuring them in the first half, and I came into the locker room at halftime, pulled up a chair, looked them in the eye and said, ‘Keep doing what you’re doing.’”
Spokane (17-11) was playing in its first sectional in 10 years, started two freshmen and yet was unfazed by the big stage through most of the game. In fact, the Owls had five finish in double figures, with Isaiah Bean’s 18 points leading the way.
In essence, the Owls found a rhythm early, glad to be trading baskets, and didn’t flinch even after Crocker built an eight-point advantage in the second quarter. They also cut the deficit to seven points in the final minute, but the third quarter was too much to overcome.
“We just kind of went out and settled for too many jump shots, and it took us too long (to rally),” Spokane coach Kyle Johnson said. “I think if we had been a little more patient and gotten the ball inside … we just lost our patience.”
He then added, “They were hard to get off the boards, too. They got a lot of second- and third- chances and those hurt us.”
Unofficially, Crocker scored 15 second-chance points, largely thanks to the Boorom boys doing the work in the paint as well.
For Spokane, Jack Rigdon (15), Chase Horton (13), and Cameron Kipper (12) finished in double figures. Jackson Bray added eight, and Zayne Gale scored three points.
But Crocker is advancing – this for a team that was 7-19 four years ago and doesn’t want to stop now.
“We’re going to try our hardest to keep it going all the way,” Ethyn Boorum said.
