Top-ranked Chaminade ends Poplar Bluff's playoff run in quarterfinal

Poplar Bluff seniors Joseph Hardimon and Chance Campbell hug in front of junior Gage Rivers as Chaminade celebrates a 69-55 win over the Mules in the MSHSAA Class 6 quarterfinal Friday night, March 12, 2021, at the Senior High Gym in Poplar Bluff, Mo.

The Mules gave the top-ranked team a devil of a time Friday night in the MSHSAA Class 6 quarterfinal.

Chaminade scored 11 straight points in the third quarter, all after offensive rebounds, then held off a late rally by Poplar Bluff, advancing with a 69-55 win.

“This is March, anybody can be beat at any point in time,” Chaminade coach Frank Bennett said. “I tip my hat to Poplar Bluff and the whole community coming out and rallying behind their team.

“Their team is good and we’re fortunate to win.”

The Mules finished 15-10, winning the program’s first district title since 2018.

It was the final game for seniors Joseph Hardimon, Chance Campbell, Darion Combs, Alex Ketcherside, Brent Worley, JaDarius Pigg and Storm Jay.

“It’s hard,” Campbell said. “It’s our last game now. We should have just put all four quarters instead of three, maybe it would have been a different outcome.”

After trading punches in the first half with a much larger Red Devils team, Poplar Bluff managed just seven points in the third quarter and fell behind.

But the Mules cut a 22-point fourth-quarter deficit down to eight on a dunk by Hardimon with just over three minutes to play.

“When Jo Jo dunked it, it just went crazy,” Campbell said of the Poplar Bluff fans.

The Mules never got closer as Chaminade answered at the foul line.

“Our kids battled,” Mules coach William Durden said. “I thought our kids proved a lot of people wrong. No one gave this group a shot a the beginning of the year.

“This group of seniors and the team clawed and fought all season. We’re proud of them.”

Picked as the eighth seed out of nine teams in the season-opening conference tournament, the Mules were one of the last eight teams standing in Class 6.

A crowd of 1,100 at the Senior High Gym witnessed Poplar Bluff’s 11th quarterfinal appearance in the program’s playoff history that dates back to 1928.

“Even the Chaminade guys were like, ‘I like this crowd.’ They’re use to playing in front of 120 people,” Campbell said.

Chaminade (21-1) will face another hostile environment next week in Springfield when the Red Devils will meet Kickapoo (26-2). Both teams return to the Show-Me Showdown a year after the event was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ft. Zumwalt North (27-2) and Liberty (25-3) also advanced to the semifinals.

“What a great environment,” Bennett said. “You could tell every time they made a basket, that whole student section was going nuts.”

Hardimon scored 23 points, including 13 in the fourth-quarter comeback. Combs added nine points, Campbell seven while Darian Webb and Gage Rivers each chipped in six points.

Chaminade’s 6-10 junior Tarris Reed Jr. scored a game-high 25 points for a double-double. He had 15 by halftime with three dunks and a basket just before the buzzer to give the Red Devils a 32-27 lead at the half.

Bennett said he told his team at the break to, “defend and rebound, play with some passion, some intensity.”

Chaminade crashed the offensive glass in the third quarter leading to extra chances, many from long range. After shooting 5 of 13 on 3-pointers in the first half, the Red Devils sank four in the third, all during a 13-2 run.

“They just crashed the boards a lot, but we should have done that, box out the big dude like we were suppose to,” said Combs, one of five players with at least four rebounds.

“We let it happen way too many times.”

Nilavan Daniels, who finished with 14 points, sank a pair while Nate Straughter and 6-7 Filip Sinobad each connected.

The Mules, meanwhile, went through a pair of scoreless stretches, the first for 2 1/2 minutes and the second over the final 2:18 as Chaminade took a 54-34 lead into the fourth.

“If we knock down a couple of shots and just execute on offense during that stretch I think it’s a different ballgame,” Durden said.

The first half featured five ties and two lead changes with Chaminade up 18-16 after one quarter.

Reed’s two-handed dunk pushed the lead to 23-16 but the Mules scored seven straight, tying it on a 3-pointer by Combs.

Straughter broke a 25-all tie on a 3-pointer with 2:44 left in the half and Chaminade led the rest of the way.

“Defensively for three quarters we played amazing, probably the best we’ve played all year,” Durden said. “Against a great team, you can’t have a letdown like that.”

Poplar Bluff trailed by 22 a minute into the fourth quarter but put together a 15-1 run.

Hardimon opened a 12-point run with a three-point play with a drive down the lane. He did it again, without getting fouled, before Gage Rivers got a three-point play with a similar drive. Campbell’s two foul shots cut the deficit to 10 with 4:10 to go and Rivers stole an inbound pass leading to Hardimon’s dunk.

“It felt pretty good,” Combs said of the comeback. “The crowd was in it, we were in it. We were locking down on defense the whole time.”

Chaminade sank 13 of 19 foul shots in the fourth quarter to finish 18 for 25. Reed sank 7 of 10 foul shots while Damien Mayo Jr. was 6 for 7 to finish with eight points.

The Mules doubled-teamed Reed any time he caught the ball with 6-2 junior Nic Brumitt, Poplar Bluff’s second-tallest player, getting the defensive assignment to start.

“They did a good job just doubling and getting the ball out of his hands (by being) scrappy and just being annoying to him and it bothered him,” Durden said.

Poplar Bluff was 7 for 10 at the line. The Mules finished minus-5 on total rebounds and had two more turnovers than Chaminade, which scored 17 second-chance points.

“We needed to box out a little more,” Campbell said. “We were boxing out and they’re just big so we had to do our best. We fought back.”