C2D3: Puxico pulls away from Advance for district title

BLOOMFIELD — Mission accomplished for the Puxico Indians boys basketball team.

After coming up just short of winning a district title in recent years, the Indians finally reached the pinnacle Saturday with a 79-47 win over the Advance Hornets in the MSHSAA Class 2 District 3 championship game.

“It's like a dream come true,” Puxico senior Jaydon Mitchell said. “I've been dreaming of this since I was a little sixth-grader watching the seniors play. There's just all that work we've been putting in and it just feels good.”

Classmate Trevor Fortner echoed Mitchell's sentiments.

“It feels amazing, man,” Fortner said. “I've been here for four straight years, seeing all of us come close but not achieve this (until now). Having this day is special for us.”

Making Saturday that much sweeter was the fact Puxico came close to winning a title last year. The Indians had a double-digit lead on top-seeded Greenville in the district semifinals but couldn't hold on.

“Last year, we got so close,” Puxico senior Thomas Burch said. “We had Greenville down by 14 (points), I think it was, at one point in time (in the district semifinals) — and we just gave up the ball and lost it.”

It took a little time for the Indians (22-5) to pull away from an Advance team that had made a Cinderella run to the district final as a No. 7 seed.

The Hornets trailed by just six points (31-25) after Braylen Carlton's free throws with 2:22 left in the first half and Advance was still within nine when Hunter Rodgers' basket made it 40-31 with 4:56 left in the third period.

That's when Puxico seemed to shift gears.

“I felt like a few times we fell asleep on defense and let guys get a few shots that we shouldn't have let them get,” Puxico coach Bryant Fernetti said. “But overall, in the second half, I thought our defense was better. Offensively I'm never really worried about it because we do have a lot of weapons. It really just comes down to how hard we're going to guard and I thought the second half was better with that.”

Jerrett Powell and Skyler Zimmerman both drained 3-pointers to pump the Indians' lead to 47-33 with 3:40 left in the third, then baskets from Zimmerman and Landon Burchard made it 51-35 with 2:20 to go in the period.

“They scored a little bit in the first half, but I felt like we also got a lot of turnovers,” Fernetti said. “That's what we want to try to do is get it up and down. If it was a slower-paced game, that would have favored them, so we just wanted to get the pace up and down the best we could.”

Rodgers' free throw with 52 seconds left in the third cut the Indians' lead to 53-39, but Puxico scored 11 points in a row to take a 64-39 lead on Jett Hancock's pullup jumper with 6:13 left, putting the game out of reach.

“I think (Saturday) when we started extending the lead, we started smelling that blood in the water and we wanted to keep going for more and more,” Fernetti said. “Sometimes we let people off the hook. But (Saturday), we just kept building on it.”

Burchard led Puxico with 23 points, while Kaysen Long added 12 and the duo of Zimmerman and Hancock each finished with 11.

“I just think what helps is I can get so many guys in the game — and it wears on people,” Fernetti said. “(We) kept moving them in and out and they did a good job guarding in the second half. That's what the biggest thing was, just guarding in the halfcourt really, really well.”

Carlton paced the Hornets with 18 points, while Andrew Henson added 12.

The Indians head to Perryville Tuesday to take on St. Vincent in a MSHSAA Class 2 sectional contest. Tipoff time is set for 6 p.m.