Puxico boys collapse, Canton pounces late to reach state finals for first time

COLUMBIA — Led by an unbelievable performance from senior Preston Brewer, Canton willed its way out of a five-point second-half deficit to overtake Puxico and claim a 65-50 victory in the semifinal stage of the MSHSAA Show-Me Showdown Class 2 bracket.

It wasn’t pretty as the Tigers had to rely on a 16-1 run in the third quarter to take a double-digit lead after being pushed to the limit just minutes prior.

Holding off Landan Burchard of Puxico, who has a reputation as one of the top players in all of Southeast Missouri, the Tigers overcame a hard-nosed effort from Puxico to punch a new piece of program history.

“(Landan Burchard) had 22,” Canton coach Dalton Armontrout said. “We knew he was gonna get his, but we just had to stop everybody else, and we did that. I thought we controlled the tempo there towards the end of the third quarter.”

Now, they’re headed to their first state championship game in program history.

“We took what they gave us, and now the story is written,” Armontrout said. “The story is written, but we're not done yet.”

For Puxico, it’s a much less glorious story. Getting drilled in the rebounding game because of a serious height disadvantage that couldn’t quite be made up for by heart alone, the turnaround was crushing.

With dreams of venturing back into the state title game, it came down in the most disheartening fashion as an already emotional Indians team spiraled downward in the homestretch.

“They're probably a lot bigger and more athletic than what the film showed,” Indians coach Bryant Fernetti said. “They're bigger across the board, and it bothered us a lot.”

After a quick blitz early in the game, a 7-0 run from Canton got the Tigers in the driver’s seat as the two teams traded leads back and forth in the first half. A cold-blooded triple from Burchard saw him finish the half with 11 points and the Tigers had a two-point edge at 26-24.

That lead increased when Burchard drilled another 3-pointer to start the third, but that’s when Canton turned on the burners. When Preston Brewer found himself wide open from the corner already up five points, it truly felt like the dagger was placed in the heart of the Indians.

Brewer’s game was a nearly perfect one: 23 points, 14 rebounds, 77% from the field and a trifecta of blocks that erupted Mizzou Arena like a cannonball each time.

Tyler Frazier added 14 points and Drew Gottman another 11, which silenced a Puxico side that featured an unreal 22-point game from Burchard, with four assists, two steals, a block and a 50% day from deep.

Canton advances to its first state title game in school history, having appeared in two final fours but finishing third and fourth back in the mid-2010s.

It’s a program first for Canton, and the Tigers are riding high heading into a matchup that very well could, and should, feature the No. 1 team in Class 2 as Eugene looks to unseat Lincoln.

Going to the final four for the first time in over 70 years, the Puxican audience that jammed Mizzou Arena’s lower bowl full seems ready to support their Indians no matter what, which includes an appearance in the third-place game Thursday, March 13.

If anything, it might even bode well for Puxico. The last time the Indians finished third, they won the state championship the next year, and the year after and appeared in the final four again the year after that.

Fernetti noted the unique opportunity to finish the season as one of just two teams in the class to end on a victory and, with any luck, it’ll be a repeat of 1950 as the Indians look to add one more feather to an already bedecked hat.

“It's not the way we wanted, but we still get to end the year on a big note, for sure,” Fernetti said. “We'll try to do that for the town.”