Meadow Heights boys basketball team suffers loss in district opener

ORAN, Mo. -- Meadow Heights boys basketball coach Tom Brown told his players that he wanted them to take the final shot of the first half Saturday.

The Lesterville Bearcats had just taken a five-point lead with just less than 2 minutes to go in their Class 2 District 3 quarterfinal.

"We talked about that," Brown said. "We called for one shot with a minute to go and then a kid had a wide-open shot and shot it and then they scored four points after that. That was very hard. We took a bad shot at the wrong time. It was a good shot at a bad time."

Lesterville scored four points in 20 seconds, the last two coming on an offensive rebound and put-back as the buzzer sounded.

The Panthers, who held multiple leads in the first half, never dug themselves out of their nine-point halftime deficit and eventually lost 69-62.

Meadow Heights, the No. 5 seed, finished the season 6-17.

"They're one of my favorite teams to coach -- top three teams," Brown said. "We've lost several games, but we've always been in them. They've worked hard. They've never argued with me. They did everything I asked."

Meadow Heights led the fourth-seeded Bearcats 17-16 after one quarter and took its final lead 23-20 midway through the second quarter before Lesterville closed the half on a 16-4 run.

The Panthers struggled to rebound on both ends of the floor for much of the game.

"They were just bigger than us, and we just didn't come to play today," said Meadow Heights senior Calen Buerck, who finished with 16 points.

Meadow Heights made a run at the Bearcats in the third quarter, using its press to force four turnovers and pull to within three points before Lesterville coach Jason St. Gemme called a timeout with 2 minutes, 23 seconds to go in the quarter.

"We made a little bit of an adjustment on defense," Brown said. "Then we got a little bit more pushing the ball down the floor, and I thought that was in our favor."

Meadow Heights pulled to within two points at 42-40 before Lesterville went on an 8-2 run without turning over the ball.

"I think they adjusted to it and figured out what to do," Buerck said, referring to his team's defensive pressure. "I think it just wore us out. The third quarter I think just wore us out for the fourth quarter."

The Panthers missed their first six shots of the fourth quarter and trailed by as many as 16 points in the period.

"I guess it was just missing shots," Meadow Heights senior Adam Walker said. "We had easy shots, but they weren't just pure easy. We just weren't getting the breaks it felt like. They were good shots. We didn't shoot bad shots."

Walker finished with a game-high 25 points in his final high school game.

"I thought we fought hard," a teary-eyed Brown said. "We gave it everything we had, you know? It seemed like there was a shield over the rim a lot. The ball would not go. We missed four point-blank shots, and that hurt us. We missed a couple defensive opportunities, but I thought our boys played as hard as they've ever played, and I was proud of them."

Brown, who has coached for 27 seasons, said the senior class was the first one he's coach throughout their entire Meadow Heights careers.

"It was emotional," he said about the loss. "I've had them kids since the third grade -- 10 years. It's not the way we had planned.

"I told them in the locker room, I said, 'Seniors, this is one time for you. I've done this 27 times.' And it's hard. It is. It's real hard."

Lesterville 16 20 16 17 -- 69

Meadow Hts 17 16 15 14 -- 62

LESTERVILLE (69) -- Tom McKeever 4, Austin Chadbourne 2, Evan Stewart 9, Trevor Cunningham 11, Kris Pippen 11, Blane Kelley 22, Cody Pollard 10. FG 24, FT 14-28, F 10. (3-pointers: Pippen 3, Kelley 4. Fouled out: none)

MEADOW HEIGHTS (62) -- Adam Walker 25, Aaron Mayfield 2, Daylan Davis 7, Ethan Mayfield 4, Trent Kiefer 2, Calen Buerck 16, Tanner Bollmann 6. FG 26, FT 4-7, F 17. (3-pointers: Walker 4, Davis 1, Buerck 1. Fouled out: none)