Hartville boys, Skyline girls win state championships

The Hartville boys and Skyline girls are state champions after dominant performances on Thursday evening in Columbia.

Two of the best basketball programs the region has produced over the last decade continue to reign supreme while adding to their ever-growing trophy cases.

Here's what went down at Mizzou Arena.

Hartville boys win third state championship in five years

An emotional year for the Hartville boys' basketball program ended with the Eagles claiming their third state championship in the past five years.

A 60-42 win over Weaubleau in the

Class 2 Show-Me Showdown title game continued one of the great small-school runs the state has had to offer over the last decade. It's their fourth state championship since 2016.

The win capped off a tough year in which Hartville head coach Brett Reed lost his mom before the Blue and Gold Tournament, a player on the team lost a loved one and the team's starting senior point guard tore his ACL in mid-January.

It was as if Hartville played with more than five players on the court on Thursday night.

“It was a very emotional experience for me and we really played so well,” Reed said. “The group's done more for me this year than I could ever do for them. It's almost like closure for my mom. The last thing she told me before she passed away on Christmas Eve was that she loved me and that we were gonna win another one this year.”

HIGH SCHOOL BASKETBALL PLAYOFFS

She was right. The resilient Eagles group didn't lose a game after the Blue and Gold Tournament concluded. They rallied together and had one of the best defenses Hartville has put on the court in a long line of great defenses.

It made an appearance in the title game.

Weaubleau's lone lead came when it was 2-0 and it only lasted to eight seconds. The Tigers were held to five points in the first quarter and nine in the second. By then, Hartville built its lead up to 23 before Weaubleau found some consistent scoring when the game was already out of reach.

The 42 points from the Tigers were the fewest they scored all season as they ended up second in the state, the highest Weaubleau has ever finished. Twenty-two points were scored by senior Gage Johnson with 11 from Blaine Durnell, nine from Dawson Stewart and none from everyone else.

Hartville finished the year allowing only 37.8 points per game, the fewest the Eagles have allowed in any of their previous state championships. Their five-year run also included a fourthplace finish a year ago.

“I challenged these guys. I'm like, ‘if you want to win a state championship, you got enough talent if you'll defend and you'll rebound every night and put forth a lot of focus and energy towards that. And then you can have success.' Those guys bought into that philosophy and this might have been one of the best defensive teams I've had and I've had some really, really good ones.”

The Eagles weren't half bad offensively either. They had four scorers in double-digits with Grant Culver and Payton Cogdill each scoring 15 points. Jalon Cryer added 13 with Boone Garrison scoring 12. Hartville shot 61.1% as a