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McCluer North Overcame Late Season Swoon to Class 5 Title
MCCLUER NORTH STATES CHAMPS: Members of the state championship McCluer North Boys Class 5 basketball team Left to right: Row 1: Keith Jones, Caleb Bush, Damon Clemons and Byron Ray. Row 2: Tremayne Garrett, Latron Thomas, Galen Brown, Toye Okunrinboye (and Randy Reed Jr.). Row 3: Marcus Blair, Jacari Finley, Jordon Granger, B.J. Young, Keaton Turner and Coach Randy Reed.
By Jim Wieners
Until late January it looked as if McCluer North Boys Basketball was going to have an invincible season.Earlier this month McCluer North had finished an invincible season, but not an undefeated season.
McCluer North (29-4) won the Missouri State High School Activities Association Class Five title for the second time in school history. The Stars won the other state boys basketball title in 2007 but was unable to repeat in 2008.
It is the seventh MSHSAA state title for McCluer North winning in four sports-all played during the winter season. The first state sports title for McCluer North was in boys soccer (1974-75) the last year the sport was played during the winter and it is now held during the fall season. Wrestling has the most titles at McCluer North and it was won in three straight years (1988-90).
McCluer North won their first 19 games before losing to Belleville (Ill.) West in the final game of the Belleville East Tournament. McCluer North was 4-1 versus Southwestern Conference schools including a 1-1 split against Belleville West.
In early to mid February McCluer North lost to Hazelwood Central, McCluer High and Chaminade (that game was televised on ESPNU) while defeating Riverview Gardens (a team the Stars won twice including the opening round of District Two) in a four-game span. The losses to Hazelwood Central and McCluer not only dropped the Stars to third in the Suburban North (5-2) but it cost them a District Two first round bye.
It was during District Two that McCluer North began payback, starting with a 68-56 win over the McCluer Comets then defeated Suburban North Conference Champion Hazelwood Central, 60-44, to win the District Two title. Both games against Hazelwood Central and all of the District Two Tournament were played at Hazelwood Central and the Hawks, 7-0 in the Suburban North, finished at 26-2.
Following a 63-51 win over Cape Girardeau Central at Farmington in the Sectional round the Stars, three days later and nearly three weeks ago met up with Chaminade at the University of Missouri-St. Louis in from of a jam-packed Mark Twain Building. It was so packed that the closest parking space was over a mile from the Mark Twain Building and sportswriter Jim Wieners could not get a parking spot any closer. Nonetheless, the Stars avenged an earlier loss with a 57-56 win and Chaminade’s previous unbeaten record ended up with a 27-1 mark.
Nearly two weeks ago in Columbia, at the Mizzou Arena, the Stars wrapped up their state title season by holding off Lee’s Summit North, a first-time state semifinalist, 63-59. Then they secured the state title with a 63-53 win over Troy-Buchanan, a team playing in their first state title game since, 1960, Class M second place.
