Porter, Hatchett star in final basketball game together

COLUMBIA, Mo. -- What began on a backyard basketball court under the careful supervision of a Scott County Central basketball legend came to an end Saturday night at Mizzou Arena.

As has been the plan all along, Bobby and Bubba led the Braves to state title No. 14.

Senior Bobby Hatchett and junior Otto Porter, called Bubba by everyone who knows him, won one last game together Saturday night, a 96-47 drumming of Pilot Grove in the Class 1 championship game at Mizzou Arena.

"Ever since I moved here we've been playing together," Hatchett, who started playing at Scott County Central in the third grade, said earlier this week. "I used to go to his house and we used to play one-on-one.

"His dad, my uncle Otto, used to make us play one-on-one in their backyard and we used to eat pizza right afterward."

Scott County Central's Otto Porter scores on a fast break during Saturday's game.

Otto Sr. was not merely an observer of those contests. He was teacher and, eventually, opponent.

"That's basically how we learned how to play -- playing against each other all the time," Bubba said.

The name of Bubba's father still is sprinkled throughout the high school state record book and is a member of Southeast Missouri State hall of fame. But after his son's performance Saturday night, his name will drop a line or two.

Bubba had 29 points and 35 rebounds against Pilot Grove. Yes, that was 35 rebounds.

That shattered his father's single-game record of 25 that had stood since Scott County Central's 1976 championship game win over Glasgow.

Bubba finished with 49 rebounds at the final four, which broke his father's record of 47, also set in 1976.

"It's all good," Otto Sr. said with a smile after the team's second state championship in as many years. "It's good. Better him."

Bubba already had accumulated 21 boards by halftime, allowing others in the crowd to tell Otto Sr. that his record was in jeopardy and chide him about being passed by his son.

Bubba planned to do the same thing.

"Oh yeah," Bubba said when asked if he relished breaking his father's record. "I want to tell him that I broke your record and now I got to try to break my own.

"But I'm real happy that I broke his."

To hear Otto Sr. tell it, watching his nephew and son break state records and win back-to-back titles with a running clock in the fourth quarter just keeps with family tradition.

"It was fun and yet it was what we expected because we expect it," Otto Sr. said. "Those two have been playing together ever since kindergarten, so they've been around the ball for a long time.

"Bobby's dad went and won state, I went and won state, so it's all in our blood. It's kind of tradition."

Bobby finished with 28 points on 12-of-17 shooting and had nine assists in his final game in a Braves uniform.

He'll move on to a college team while Bubba will try for one more state title next season.

"It's going to be crazy," Bobby said about the thought of playing without Otto before the final four began. "I'm going to miss him, straight up. I'm going to miss him a lot. I know he's going to miss me, but I'm going to miss him more, though."

Both Bubba and Bobby said that there was no dominant player in their backyard contests and that they had ended years ago.

"Man, OK, listen," the 5-foot-11 Bobby said. "There was a time when he was just real weak and he wasn't as big and I used to beat him.

"Then he started growing, he started getting better, his dad just started get on him and then he started beating me and I started beating him."

Then they moved on to trying to beat Otto Sr.

"We used to play quite a bit all the time back and forth," Otto Sr. "They always was trying to beat me and now they've caught up with me."

He said his students finally caught up with him -- but only a couple years ago.

"The thing of it is they know they've got to play to beat me," he said, "so it's one of those things, I may be up in age, but I can still play."

He was just a relaxed fan in the stands Saturday, watching his alma mater win another title.

"I don't get excited," he said. "I know they're going to go out there and do what they've been doing for as long as they have, so it's not a big deal."

He's knows because he's been there all along.

"We knew that they were capable of doing, so the hard work paid off," he said. "They know I'm a stickler and it paid off."