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By Calen VanNess (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
For the past two seasons, Greenwood or Hartville has ended the other’s season prior to the final four. In 2019, it was the Blue Jays defeating Hartville before winning a state title. Last year, the Eagles got their revenge on Greenwood en route to a state championship. It was only fitting that they meet up one last time to break the tie before these two programs graduate two of their greatest senior classes in each program’s history.
Luckily for the fans who packed the gym on the campus of Baptist Bible College, Hartville vs. Greenwood: Part III lived up to the hype as the two teams battled back and forth. In the end, however, it was clutch free throws and stifling defense that ultimately propelled Hartville to a hard-fought 36-33 victory on Friday night in state quarterfinal play.
The Eagles built up a 22-15 lead early in the second half after a technical foul was called on phenom Aminu Mohammed. This, along with Hartville’s foul trouble, re-energized Greenwood as the Bluejays fought back to take a brief two-point lead late in the third quarter on senior Victory Naboya’s two free throws.
After trading a few buckets to begin the fourth quarter, the shot of the year for Hartville may very well have come from guard Cody Mahan who hit an inbounds corner three to put the Eagles up by two. They would not relinquish the lead for the rest of the game.
“My team needed that,” said Mahan in regards to the three-pointer. “I hadn’t done much all night long, and I needed to hit that shot to get us back in the game and get us fired up.”
Hartville wouldn’t have held that lead, however, without clutch free throws from senior Braden Branstetter. He went 4-for-5 from the charity stripe in the last 1:48 of the game.
“Confidence is everything when you go to the line in big ball games,” said Branstetter.
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Hartville head coach Brett Reed felt his team did a great job after Greenwood went on their third-quarter run.
“I thought our kids weathered the storm and battled through adversity,” said Reed. “It was just a test to their resiliency.”
After Branstetter and senior guard Brady Ward picked up three fouls each within 21 seconds of one another midway through the third quarter, Reed was proud of his bench for chewing up minutes without letting Greenwood jump out to a larger lead.
“Dalton and Eric came in and bought us some time,” said Reed of senior guard Dalton O’Dell and junior guard Eric Wilson. “I think Greenwood went on a little run there, but it was over a fairly long period of time and bought some time for Brady and Braden to get back in there and we were able to seal the deal.”
Hartville knew they had to slow down Mohammed if they wanted a shot of winning another state championship. The job of guarding the standout was largely given to senior Eli Cook. Mohammed was held to just 10 points.
“Cook did a great job of containing him,” said Reed. “You can’t really stop him. We helped off some other guys to clog some driving holes.”
Cook gave all the credit to his teammates for helping him defensively as he knew how large the task was for him alone.
“[Mohammed’s] going to Georgetown for a reason,” said Cook. “He’s a heck of a player. When you have a task that big it’s not a one-man job. These guys next to me did a great job with help defense all night, and I always had trust they had my back if he got by me, and that was a big part of my game plan. All the credit goes to these guys next to me.”
Hartville led after the first quarter 11-8 thanks to Ward who started the game hitting his first three three-pointers.
“They left me open, and I am always going to fire away no matter what,” said Ward. “I got pretty fortunate to see some shots go in.”
This game also signaled the end to the incredible high school career of five-star recruit Aminu Mohammed who will be playing for Georgetown next season. Although bigger things await, he was sad to see the season end without accomplishing the ultimate goal of another state title. He especially felt bad for his teammates, but he was proud of their effort and will miss playing with them.
“This year they wanted the state championship bad,” said Mohammed. “They worked hard every day trying to get better, and it has been fun playing with them.”
Mohammed understands the impact he left on southwest Missouri as he helped make Greenwood relevant in basketball again.
“I am grateful,” said Muhammad. “[I thank] God I am able to do stuff like this. [Not everybody is] in the position to do things like that where people want to come out and watch them play and bring excitement to the game. I’m thankful I am able to do that and impact the game in southwest Missouri.”
His fondest memory of playing at Greenwood occurred in his first year.
“The state championship I won when I first got here,” said Mohammed when asked about his favorite memory. “That was the start of everything.”
Even though his goal fell short this year, he is ready to continue his basketball journey in the Big East Conference.
“I’ve always known I was going to win another one and today that has been taken, but it’s not the end of the road, so I’ve got to keep going. Today might be my last day [playing at Greenwood], but as I move on I am going to keep on doing the same thing. I’ve learned a lot as I move on to Georgetown. I am going to try to do better every day.”
His team may not have a win to show for it, but Mohammed knows he gave it his all against Hartville. He is ready to take that passion and turn it into more success as his career continues to blossom.
“I think I left it all out there, but, like I said, you can never be satisfied. Today I lost one, but I am going to win another one down the line.”
Hartville will now put their undefeated season on the line as they face Lift for Life Academy Charter on March 12. Although this win was huge for Hartville’s chances to win another state championship, they know there is more work ahead.
“The next two games we will refocus and put forth our best efforts and hope for the best,” said Ward.
Senior Ryce Piper echoed that sentiment.
“The next two teams are going to be really good,” said Piper. “You aren’t going to find a bad team in it. We are going to have to go do what we do and get the job done.”
Reed also knows the job is not quite finished.
“This is a quarterfinal game,” said Reed. “At the end of the day, there’s still more games to play, and once you get to the Final Four, everybody is good and they have weathered some storms. Tonight we are going to celebrate and will start to refocus tomorrow and get back to the drawing board.”
Another championship is getting closer, and the Eagles will be ready.
“We are excited to move on to the next chapter and finish the job,” said Cook.
The Eagles know how special winning one is.
“There’s nothing more exciting than that,” said Piper with a smile on his face.
Box Score
Hartville 11 9 4 12—36
Greenwood 8 7 9 9—33
Hartville – Brady Ward 16, Braden Branstetter 9, Cody Mahan 5, Ryce Piper 4, Eli Cook 2
Greenwood – Aminu Mohammed 10, Tommy Pinegar 6, Victory Naboya 6, Nicholas Burris 3, Harper Grant 2, Kaden Stuckey 2, Ryan Gibbons 2, Tanner Jones 2
EXTENDED HIGHLIGHTS
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