High school roundup: Eagle Ridge boys win state championship

The fourth time was a charm for the Eagle Ridge boys basketball team.

Eagle Ridge overcame a 16-point halftime deficit to beat New Salem 47-43 in the MCSAA Class 3A state championship game Saturday in Joplin, Mo.

"We just made the adjustments we needed to," Eagle Ridge coach Andrew Mellies said. "We switched up our defense a little bit and our boys just wanted it more. We just got to every rebound and moved our feet on defense a little bit better. We played stifling defense. We knew that was going to win the championship for us the whole year."

It was the second consecutive state title for Eagle Ridge.

The two local schools met three times during the season before Saturday and New Salem tripped Eagle Ridge in all three meetings. New Salem entered the state tournament as the No. 1 seed, while Eagle Ridge was the No. 2. But Eagle Ridge refused to be intimidated.

"Even though we were the second seed, we didn't feel like an underdog because we knew we were the champs last year," Mellies said. "We knew we were there to defend our title, but we knew it wasn't going to be easy. New Salem's got an awfully good team."

New Salem jumped out to a 10-point lead after the first quarter and pushed it to 16 points at the intermission. But Eagle Ridge outscored New Salem 22-5 in the fourth quarter to pull out the win.

"The main thing was I told them at halftime we had to stay together and we couldn't do anything about the first half," Mellies said. "We couldn't do anything about the past, but we could control what we did in the future in the final two quarters. We could control the tempo and we could control the decisions we made."

Jonathan Rockhill led Eagle Ridge (18-10) with 19 points and eight rebounds, while Josh Carbaugh added 13 points.

Josh Davault led New Salem with 13 points.

Eagle Ridge 6 9 10 22 -- 47

New Salem 16 15 7 5 -- 43

EAGLE RIDGE (47) -- Aaron Margrabe 4, Josh Carbaugh 13, Jonathan Rockhill 19, Sam Davis 11. FG 16, FT 10-13, F 16. (3-pointers: Carbaugh 3. Fouled out: none)

NEW SALEM (43) -- Trent Jones 11, Josh Davault 13, John Bucholtz 1, Dillon Gaines 9, Bubba Bucholtz 9. FG 16, FT 6-13, F 13. (3-pointers: Jones 2, Davault 1. Fouled out: Gaines)

Oak Ridge 80, Gideon 45

Caleb Elam connected for four 3-pointers for a game-high 18 points in the Blue Jays' home win.

Garret Light added 17 points, while Brett Thomas netted 14 for Oak Ridge (18-4).

Gideon 16 3 22 4 -- 45

Oak Ridge 24 27 18 11 -- 80

GIDEON (45) -- Curt Miller 14, Joey Richmond 8, Tim Kelly 7, Slayton Boone 7, Jordan Landers 3, Hunter Mitchell 2, Nick Sheppard 2, Damon Cornett 2. FG 17, FT 5-9, F 18. (3-pointers: Miller 2, Richmond 2, Boone 1, Landers 1. Fouled out: none)

OAK RIDGE (80) -- Caleb Elam 18, Garret Light 17, Brett Thomas 14, Logan Mangels 10, Jacob Light 10, Lucas Rohde 7, Stephen Bolen 4. FG 26, FT 22-28, F 12. (3-pointers: Elam 4, Rohde 2. Fouled out: none)

JV -- Gideon won

Herculaneum 58, Perryville 57

The Pirates fouled with no time on the clock and the Black Cats converted from the line to grab the victory.

Bryce Weibrecht led Perryville (10-14) with 19 points, while Jared Thieret added 15.

Herculaneum 14 11 21 12 -- 58

Perryville 11 22 13 11 -- 57

HERCULANEUM (58) -- Clement Ohanmu 5, Derek Dukeman 2, Dylan Helms 5, Dylan LaBrayere 17, Drew Achter 12, Andrew Harrison 13, Aaron Fuller 4. FG 23, FT 6-11, F 17. (3-pointers: Ohanmu 1, Helms 1, LaBrayere 2, Achter 2. Fouled out: Harrison)

PERRYVILLE (57) -- Jared Hotop 2, Ross Moldenhauer 6, Wade Lawrence 10, Bryce Weibrecht 19, Jason Thieret 5, Jared Thieret 15. FG 20, FT 12-21, F 14. (3-pointers: Moldenhauer 2, Lawrence 2, Jason Thieret 1. Fouled out: none)

JV -- Perryville won 54-36

Wellston 77, Scott City 61

The Rams were down by just three at the half but were outscored 42-29 in the second half to fall to 4-15 on the year.

Landon Robert led Scott City with five 3-pointers for 15 points, while Skylar Cobb and Blake Crail both added 12 points.

Scott City 16 16 15 14 -- 61

Wellston 15 20 20 22 -- 77

SCOTT CITY (61) -- Landon Robert 15, Skylar Cobb 12, Blake Crail 12, Justin Modglin 10, Zach Cotner 9, Corey Rodgers 8, Kyle Lacey 5. FG 22, FT 7-12, F 13. (3-pointers: Robert 5, Cobb 2, Cotner 1, Rodgers 2. Fouled out: none)

WELLSTON (77) -- Lee 16, Tierrome Stokes 7, Ben McLemore 31, Eldight White 7, Woolfolk 7, Larry Shores 4, Bright 3. FG 32, FT 8-12, F 15. (3-pointers: Stokes 1, McLemore 1, White 1. Fouled out: none)

JV -- Wellston won

Scott County 92, Maplewood 86

The Braves, ranked No. 1 in Class 1, pulled out a close win, according to stltoday.com

-- From staff reports