Eagle Ridge boys basketball team falls to Kelly, continues pursuit of MSHSAA membership

As the Kelly boys basketball team took the floor against Eagle Ridge for the first time ever, Kelly coach Ryan Garnett noticed his players were caught a little off guard.

"In the first half we came out a little flat. I just don't think we were ready to be honest," Garnett said. "I think we didn't realize how hard Eagle Ridge was going to play. They've got good pieces. They've got guys that can shoot, and they play their butts off. They had a big man down low that was giving us trouble the whole game, and we weren't ready for it."

The Hawks overcame their early struggles and after clinging to a five-point lead at halftime used several second-half runs to come away with a 70-51 victory over Eagle Ridge on the road.

"In the second half, basically I told them, 'Come out and work hard. Don't leave anything out there,'" Garnett said. "We had guys that weren't leaving it and not working hard in the first half. Second half, we came out, got after it, played with more intensity and got out of here with a win. We were able to pull away in the second half, but it was by no means an easy victory at all."

Eagle Ridge stayed within at least five points of the Hawks in the first half and led six times before halftime.

In the first quarter, senior Lane Henson led the Eagles with nine points, including a 3 he knocked down with 11 seconds left in the period to give the Eagles a 19-17 lead.

Eagle Ridge scored the opening basket of the second, and Kelly answered with two more before Eagle Ridge senior Josh King sparked a 6-0 run to give his team a 27-21 lead with 4 minutes, 49 seconds remaining in the half. King scored all six of the Eagles' points during that span.

Kelly started an 8-0 run of its own to regain the lead at 29-27. But King answered again with a layup to tie the game with 2:32 to play.

King led all scorers at halftime with 14 points, but the Eagles never regained the lead for the remainder of the game.

The Hawks (4-9) closed out the half with a 7-2 run to gain a 36-31 advantage at the break.

Turnovers hurt the Eagles throughout the game, but especially in the second half. Eagle Ridge turned the ball over 30 times and began the second half with five straight turnovers.

"Any time a team turns the ball over 20-plus times it's going to make it difficult on them," Garnett said. "We used a couple different defenses, showed them a couple different looks, and that made them think a little bit and take time to adjust. Our defense definitely bailed us out at times and I think led to a lot of scoring opportunities, which we were able to capitalize on a lot better in the second half."

Those Eagle Ridge miscues allowed Kelly to go on an 11-6 run to take a 47-37 lead with 3:27 left in the third. The Hawks led 53-42 at the end of the third.

In the fourth quarter, Eagle Ridge was held scoreless for the first five minutes until Henson drove to the basket, scored a layup and was fouled. Henson made the free throw, but it was too little too late for the Eagles, who trailed 61-45.

Kelly closed the game with a 9-5 run to come away with a victory.

Ty Householder finished with 16 points to lead the Hawks. Garnett said he has been a player that Kelly looks to all season.

"Ty is our leader. Unquestioned leader all year long," Garnett said. "He is our strong head. He's not always our highest scorer, but he's the guy that people feed off of in terms of energy and composure at the same time. And that's what he provided for us tonight."

The Eagles' mission

Eagle Ridge coach Andrew Mellies talks to his team before the game with Kelly Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2015 at Eagle Ridge School. (Fred Lynch)

Eagle Ridge may have fallen to the Hawks, but eighth-year coach Andrew Mellies said Tuesday's loss was in no way something his players should hang their heads about.

In fact, the game was a huge stepping stone, according to Mellies.

The Eagles' matchup with Kelly marked the first time they had competed against a non-private high school, as big as Kelly, since the program began in 2006.

Eagle Ridge resides in the Missouri Christian School Athletic Association [MCSAA] and competes against over 50 schools statewide.

In 2009, Eagle Ridge became a MSHSAA affiliate, which allows them to compete against other member schools but prohibits them from competing in MSHSAA sponsored postseason events, such as district, sectional and state tournaments. 
Recently, Eagle Ridge began to schedule more local MSHSAA schools in an effort to prevent traveling long distances and to show schools in the area that its sports programs are getting better.

"Being in Missouri Christian we play a lot of smaller schools in our division and in our class," Mellies said. "We wanted to join MSHSAA and be affiliates because we thought it would be really good for our sports programs and with the hope that eventually we would be MSHSAA full members. We love being part of MCSAA, but it's a lot of travel. And we would love to be more involved with the local schools here and play some more of the Class 1s, Class 2s and Class 3s in our area. I think Kelly is probably the biggest class we've played since we've been MSHSAA [affiliates]. This is a big step for us to be able to play Kelly, and we knew it would be a tough task. But it's really good for our boys with competition and really good for our school. It brings people in to see that Eagle Ridge is more than just an elementary school and more than just a general high school but that we do have a great athletics program as well."

Eagle Ridge has already experienced what Mellies called, "a little success" against MSHSAA member schools this season.

The Eagles defeated Delta by a score of 75-45 earlier this season. Two seasons ago, Eagle Ridge also played Zalma, Saxony and Kennett. Mellies added that they try to schedule Marquand-Zion at least once a year.

In his eight seasons at the helm of the Eagles, Mellies admits that there have been some growing pains, but he has brought them success.

Eagle Ridge's Richard Mason drives against Kelly's Dalton Huffman during the first quarter Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2015 at Eagle Ridge School. (Fred Lynch)

Eagle Ridge won back-to-back state titles in 2009 and 2010. Mellies attributes those championships to the relationships he built with his players during their time at Eagle Ridge.

"The first couple years, I had a team I really inherited a good bunch of kids who knew the game of basketball," Mellies said. "I was 21 when I first started coaching, so I think it was more learning for me than it was for the kids. My philosophy on coaching is very much team-oriented and very much relationship building. If a coach doesn't work hard for his players, then the players generally won't work hard for him. High school kids will work hard if they know that you care about them, and that's a really big key for us at this school. Our coaches, our teachers really emphasize that and we get the most out of our students because of that."

Last season, Eagle Ridge claimed its third MCSAA Class 1A championship with a 57-41 victory over top-seeded Liberty Christian in Joplin, Missouri.

"A couple years before we won that, we were going through a bit of a rebuilding process. Last year we inherited some kids that came to our school, and we really realized we had the talent," Mellies said. "Halfway throughout the season we really picked up our momentum, and as it seems to be in the pros and in college sports as well, we just got hot down the stretch and played well at the end of January and into February and were able to put together a run to win the state title. Obviously MSCAA is smaller, but it is very serious, and it is a big deal for us to have won it."

Henson and King, who are cousins, were two of the players Eagle Ridge inherited last season. Henson finished with a game-high 21 points against Kelly, and King had 20.

Both Henson and King attended Chaffee High School before leaving two years ago to pursue a better education.

They both said they were unaware Eagle Ridge had a basketball program, which was extra incentive for them to attend.

"I liked the school. I liked the idea of being able to come here and also get a good education," Henson said. "I came here more for the education, and that's when I found out that they had a good basketball team. And I decided to join, and I enjoy it."

Henson said he has gotten a chance to do things that he never would have had the chance to do while at Chaffee, such as win a state championship.

"I never really got the opportunity to participate in something big like that until last year," Henson said. "We went there. We gave it our all, and we came out on top. It was really something. Most people don't even get a chance to make it to a state championship, let alone win it."

Henson added that he and the rest of his teammates have become invested in making Eagle Ridge a strong basketball program for seasons to come.

"Once I leave, I think this school is really going to keep turning around being good as long as we keep with it," Henson said. "We have a great coach. We have a lot of people with heart that want to give their all on the court, and I believe this school can really make something out of it if they keep with it."

Garnett gave credit to the Eagles and said he was impressed with the way Eagle Ridge was able to hang around with his team and also make them worry.

"We never look past anybody. This is only our fourth win of the year. We're not looking at anybody as an easy win or somebody we can walk over, and tonight should not have been any different," Garnett said. "Not knowing anything about them because we've never played them and we don't see them at all caught us off guard. And I told the guys that at halftime. I think they didn't expect them to be disciplined and work as hard as they do. But that's what we like. We want competition, and I know Eagle Ridge wants competition, too. That's good basketball, in my opinion, and I'm glad we could play this game against them. Being our fourth win, we needed kind of a messy win like this and just something to learn from due to the fact that we now know that we can't take anybody for granted. We haven't established our team as a dominant team in the area by any means, so we've got a lot work to do and have to keep working at it."

Mellies doesn't plan to stop helping the Eagles improve any time soon and looks forward to the chance of playing larger schools to prove his team can compete.

"I went to school here. I graduated here in 2003, and we weren't MSHSAA affiliates at that point. We didn't have soccer. We didn't have baseball, but over the years we've really developed as a sports program and developed quite a bit," Mellies said. "The more MSHSAA schools we play, the more our name gets out there. I don't want to say we're marketing, but at the very least people are acknowledging that we're there. Tonight, our goal was to represent our school well and to show Kelly that we have good competitive programs. I'm proud of the way we hung with them tonight, and I think we accomplished everything that we set out to do tonight."

Kelly 17 19 17 17 -- 70

Eagle Ridge 19 12 11 8 -- 51

KELLY (70) -- Ty Householder 16, Jacob McClain 13, Maurice Davis 11, Connor Dittlinger 9, Levi Alsup 8, Dalton Huffman 5, Kade Proctor, Cayden Williams 2, Isai Campos 2. FG 27, FT 14-30, F 12 (3-pointers: Householder 2. Fouled out: none.)

EAGLE RIDGE (51) -- Lane Henson 21, Josh King 20, Jordan Cliff 4, Richard Mason 2, Anand Patel 2, Mathan Parker 2, . FG 21, FT 4-9, F 17. (3-pointers: Henson 5. Fouled out: none.)