Meadow Heights falls to Advance

Advance got a late field goal to fall through to rally past Meadow Heights for a 61-60 victory on Dec. 27 at the Show Me Center.

It was looking rather bleak for the Meadow Heights boys’ basketball team in its Dec. 27 match-up against Advance. The Panthers were trailing 50-39 after three quarters following a 3-pointer from the Hornets’ Brodie Rodgers ahead of the horn.

The Panthers responded by outscoring Advance 21-9 in the fourth quarter. That was enough to grab a 60-58 lead in the closing seconds, but the Hornets split a pair of free throws and a late field goal from junior Morgan Swinford bounced in with less than five seconds remaining, allowing no. 15 seed Advance to escape with a 61-60 victory. The Panthers were unable to get a shot attempt off following the Hornets’ go-ahead bucket.

While the lead entering the fourth quarter appeared safe for the Hornets, the Panthers showed resiliency in turning the 11-point deficit into a late lead.

“Our players lost a little bit of their focus,” said Advance coach Dalton Wilson. “We stopped running our actions and kind of lost our spacing. A lot of these guys haven’t been in this situation a lot. They’ve got a lot of confidence for a 15th seed. They were ready to come out and play. It was a good turnaround (for us).”

Hunter Rodgers led the Hornets with 17 points while Jameson Hamlin collected 12 points. Also in double figures for Advance were Brison Winchester (11 points) and Brodie Rodgers (10 points).

Meadow Heights’ senior Braeden Hays led all scorers with 26 points. He made four of the Panther’s seven 3-pointers. Maison Whitener contributed 18 points.

“This one stings,” Meadow Heights coach Gary Poyner said after the one-point defeat, which dropped his squad to 3-5 this year. “I’m going to be quite honest. This one stings. This is one where we battled back, we had the lead, we were in control and we gave it away. I don’t mean that negatively toward Advance because they come out, busted their butts, played hard, and got after it, but a couple of things happened and we gave it away.”

Not finding a way to grab the defensive rebound on the late missed free throw by Advance’s Jameson Hamlin proved costly, according to Poyner.

“We don’t get after the lost ball like we should of, they hustled after it, got the stick back, and deserved to win the game,” Poyner said.

Meadow Heights needs to find a way to put an entire game together, according to Poyner.

“We had it, and we gave it away, now we did battle ourselves back in it, but we have to figure out how to put four quarters together because, in the first half, we didn’t have that. There were times when we got after it and did good things but then we would have lapses.”

A 3-pointer by Hays gave the Panthers a 60-58 lead with 1:15 remaining. They would not score again. Meadow Heights was still clinging to the two-point advantage and just needed to “control the ball” late in the game. That didn’t occur as they were whistled for a traveling violation with less than 20 seconds left.

Advance took possession and found a way to take the game in the closing seconds.

Meadow Heights raced to an early 9-6 lead as it made four of the game’s first six field goals. The Panthers’ lead was later 15-9 after a basket from Whitener but the Hornets responded with an 11-0 run to take a 20-15 advantage early in the second quarter.

The Advance lead grew to 29-21 after a three-point play from Brison Winchester 1:45 before the half. Meadow Heights used a late 6-0 run to cut the lead to 29-27 at halftime. Kamden Hays contributed four of those six points prior to halftime.

Meadow Heights (3-5) will host Oran Friday, Jan. 10.