Home Sweet Home Opener: Ladue Upsets McClure North

Coming off of a disappointing result against Hazelwood Central, Ladue bounced back 24 hours later to topple the McClure North Stars 57-54.

Cornell Johnston now has three consecutive game highs all scoring over 20 points. He finished with 20, but the person who steamrolled Ladue's attack when it mattered most near the end was Andrew Maddock scoring 15, but scored 8 crucial points late when the Rams needed them most.

Once, again the Rams started well getting out to a 7-2 lead. However the teams finished at a 15-15 standstill with McClure North finishing the first quarter on a 13-6 run with Rashad Lindsey being the main component of the their offensive attack. He finished with 17 points.

The Stars continued their well balanced attack in the 2nd quarter. They were unselfish all night as they kept driving to basket and dishing it to an open man and got second chances by out-rebounding the Rams. Part of their success of doing that was Andrew Maddock being in foul trouble again.

However Ladue never let McClure North get a big lead, in fact 6 points was the biggest lead of the game between the two teams and had many different lead changes.

With time running out in the in half, Jeremy Loftin hit a very important 3 pointer at the buzzer to push the deficit closer to 28-26 heading into the locker room. The Rams came out confident and even took the lead early in the 3rd quarter, but the Stars had an answer and again pushed the lead back out to 5 points.

The game started at 7:00 and the 4th quarter started at 8:12. Obviously up to that point the game was quick and unentertaining to the neutral fans, but this would be the most entertaining part of the game and so far this season, a defining moment for the Ladue Rams.

At the start, McClure North remained on top and it looked like it would stay that way. However, within a minute, the Rams had tied it with 2 straight buckets. The Stars retained the lead with under 2 minutes to play, but the Rams kick started their offense again. Johnston kept driving to the basket and laying it off for Maddock, who never picked up a foul in the 2nd half.

With a minute to go the Rams were down by 1, but had the ball. Johnston again laid off a pass to Maddock down low. He was triple teamed, but managed to fade away and bank in his shot with 55 seconds left to take a 55-54 lead. 

Now with Ladue up, McClure North now had to make a big impact response. Rashad Lindsey was the obvious target to make something happen. However after 20 seconds, the Rams help defense came to the rescue. Jon Collins and Connor Spritas double teamed DeMonte Morris and the player Collins was covering shifted towards the basket. Collins realized it and drifted backwards. Morris then threw a pass just a little too low, which Collins tipped to himself for the steal.

Collins was immediately fouled with 33 seconds to play and Ladue fans were finally realizing they could pull off the victory. However, free throws became the main issue. Collins has improved his shooting after a couple of games now and has made one free throw on every other attempt he's made, but this was without question the most important free throws he has ever attempted. Since it was a one and one, it could have been just one. After a little drama and waiting he made the first one. On the next shot the ball bounced 3 times on the rim, but went in.

Now with a fresh 3 point lead, the Rams knew what to do. No 3 pointers. Throughout the 4th quarter Johnston was given a job to do, which was to not let Lindsey touch the ball and limit him. So far he had succeeded with that task. Now he had to do it for one more possession. Lindsey did get ball, but couldn't get a shot off, instead it was taken by someone else, but it was off the mark and a huge scramble for the rebound was on. Eventually a Star saved the ball from going out of bounds and it was chased down by another Star and called timeout with 6 seconds to go.

Ladue needed another big stand to hold off McClure North for the W. Turns out that they did not have to. The Stars through the ball out of bounds. Then all Ladue had to do was inbound it to Johnston, get fouled, and make a free throw to secure victory. The first two happened, but not the third. It was deja vu for Johnston because he was in a situation exactly like this against SLUH last year, but all ended up well when SLUH narrowly missed a wide open 3 at the buzzer that would of sent the game to overtime.

This time Lindsey got the rebound and was double teamed the whole way. He made it as far as half court and through up a prayer... Which hit the top left corner of the backboard as the buzzer sounded and hit the floor.

Ladue had overcome McClure North and are now at 3-1. The Rams might feel they should be at 4-0, but they could easily be at 2-2. Now it is time to see who are true fans of the Rams as they travel 4 hours southwest to Springfield to take on Glendale High School in the Ozark Mountain Shootout at 7 pm on December 14th.