Leopold drains late 3-pointer to reach Woodland final

~ The third-seeded Wildcats upended No. 2 Oak Ridge 52-50

MARBLE HILL, Mo. -- Leopold boys basketball coach Andy Beck had a simple message for senior Parker Brown when he inserted him into the game with 21.7 seconds to go.

"If you've got a shot, hit it," Beck said.

Parker followed that directive when he hit a 3-pointer with 6 seconds left in the game to give third-seeded Leopold a 52-50 victory over No. 2 Oak Ridge in a Woodland Tournament semifinal on Wednesday night.

"I stayed focused," Brown said. "Coach put me in the game to hit a shot, so I just went in there and knocked it down having the confidence and hard work to do it, I guess."

Parker's heroics came after Oak Ridge senior Ryan Below missed the front end of a 1-and-1.

"I blame myself for the end of it," Oak Ridge coach Adam Stoneking said. "I thought they only had five team fouls. I should have had Ryan taking the ball out of bounds that way one of our three better free-throw shooters could've caught the ball. You look back on it, and I shouldn't have put him in that position where he'd struggled tonight. We should have had someone else trying to catch the ball right there and should have had him taking the ball out of bounds, but a kid just makes a shot.

"We got back, we got the guys we wanted to guard. A guy just makes a 3 two or three feet behind the line. What are you going to do? We'd be OK with that shot any other time of the game."

The trend of missed free throws was what most bothered Stoneking following the loss, whose team made 6 of 15 attempts.

"I'm not mad about the shot," Stoneking said. "I'm mad about the fact that we can't make a free throw. It's just so frustrating. We shoot about 40, 50 free throws a day in practice. We talk about we're just wasting time if we can't transition that into a game."

Leopold led 17-8 after the first quarter, 26-24 at halftime and 43-38 after the third quarter, but Oak Ridge started the fourth quarter on a 9-0 run to gain a lead.

Senior Cameron Davis scored Leopold's first two points of the fourth with 2 minutes, 21 seconds left in the game. Davis also scored Leopold's next two baskets, the Wildcats' only points other than Parker's make at the end.

"We got lucky that he hit a shot," said Beck of Brown, who finished with just five points in the contest. "I don't know if he hit another one all night, but he hit the one that mattered."

Leopold will try to defend its title against Perryville at 7 p.m. tonight.

Beck said his players weren't pleased with their No. 3 seed.

"They came out with a chip on their shoulder," Beck said. "They've been talking about it all week -- just because Kyle [Stroder's] not here doesn't mean we're not a good team. They came in with something to prove and it's not finished. We still have another step, but either way now we're going to finish above our seed, so they kind of proved to the doubters there that they're better than their seed."

Leopold 17 9 17 9 -- 52

Oak Ridge 8 16 14 12 -- 50

LEOPOLD (52) -- Parker Brown 5, Austin Bucher 7, Dillan Vandeven 2, Zach Elfrink 2, Andrew McWilliams 4, Cameron Davis 18, Zach Beel 14. FG 23, FT 4-10, F 18. (3-pointers: Brown 1, Bucher 1. Fouled out: none)

OAK RIDGE (50) -- Andrew Puchbauer 3, Kelby Brown 15, Ryan Below 13, Jake LeGrand 15, Kolt Metje 4. FG 18, FT 6-15, F 13. (3-pointers: Brown 5, Below 1, LeGrand 2. Fouled out: none)