Braves bench players deliver in title game

COLUMBIA -- Scott County Central senior Chris Blissett forced a steal and then threw a perfect alley-oop pass to the airborne Bobby Hatchett, who laid the ball in for an easy two points before landing early during the third quarter Saturday.

Blissett, a 6-foot-1 forward, came off the bench to play 17 minutes after starting forward Desmin Williams committed his third foul less than two minutes into the second quarter.

Blissett, who has been the Braves' sixth man, played well. He was 3 of 3 from the field, scored six points and forced one steal. More importantly, he grabbed seven rebounds.

Sophomore guard Stewart Johnson also played well off the bench for the Braves. He forced four steals and collected two rebounds in 10 minutes off the bench.

Blissett and Johnson helped the Braves rout Newtown-Harris 98-63 at Mizzou Arena.

"I had to step up hard," Blissett said. "Because if I didn't, it would have been really hard for the team to get back into the groove. We got a lot of steals and it made us get together and play hard."

Blissett said he focused on rebounding before doing anything else. Six of his seven rebounds were on the defensive end.

"I think about rebounds because coach would have gotten mad at me if I didn't get my rebounds," Blissett said. "So I had to make sure I got my rebounds and then score later. I'm so happy. I knew we was going to win it. But it just feels better to win it and do it."

Johnson looked impressive with his quickness at the front of the Braves' press. He made two of his four steals over a 14-second span early in the second quarter.

The first of those steals led to a powerful dunk by Drew Thomas. The second steal allowed Hatchett to cruise in for a layup.

"Coach was on me about stepping up," Johnson said. "So I just had to step up and play my role.

"I just tried to stay active and play aggressive. I sprained my ankle early in the game, but I had to fight that off. State championship, I ain't thinking about that."

Coach Ronnie Cookson was impressed with the way Blissett and Johnson played.

"He's a good player," Cookson said of Blissett. "Stewart, he's good. He's good for a sophomore, and I need the quick hands and the point on the press so they both come off and done a great job."

Early foul trouble

Williams committed his third foul with 6 minutes, 35 seconds left in the second quarter.

Williams has played an important role for the Braves all season in his first year as a starter. The 6-2 senior forward averaged 10 points and 7.8 rebounds per game through district play. While being limited to 14 minutes during the championship game, Williams was held scoreless and grabbed two rebounds. But the senior was not disappointed in his final game as a high school player.

"It was crazy [getting into early foul trouble], but I was just looking for one thing and I got it -- it was a state championship," Williams said. "Fouling out or whatever, I got mine."

Williams said that Blissett stepped up off the bench.

"He's the sixth man off the bench and he's pretty good," Williams said. "He steps up when he wants to, and offensive rebounding and defensive rebounding was pretty good tonight. That was the best he played all year, too."

A better start

Scott County was much more in control on offense at the start of the championship game against Newtown-Harris than it was in its semifinal win over Glasgow.

The Braves turned the ball over 11 times in the first half against Glasgow, but had six turnovers in the first half against Newtown-Harris.

"Coach got on us about being calm and collected," Johnson said. "He just tell us to slow it down and play our game and everything will come our way."

Hatchett's hair

Hatchett had been sporting a mohawk hairstyle since the Southeast Missourian Christmas Tournament, but he decided to shave his head Friday night before the championship game.

"It's over," Hatchett said about the mohawk. "My mom has been begging me to just change it up to something different. I love my mom ... so I did it for her. ... I was really getting a lot of attention on it, the mohawk, but that wasn't really what it was about. It was just a hairstyle for real."

Hatchett scored 29 points in the championship game. He said he could be that type of scorer every game next year, if needed.

"Drew, he's really unstoppable, but I'm just going to try to come out this summer, work on a lot of things, try to play a lot of AAU ball, but mainly work on my one-on-one game," Hatchett said.

Hatchett has had some Ohio Valley Conference schools interested in him, and he said that Southern Illinois University also has expressed some interest.

Thomas' recruitment

Thomas entertained recruiting interest from colleges, including Southeast Missouri State, before the state tournament.

He said a few schools approached him after Thursday's win in the semifinals.

"Just a few," Thomas said. "Not as much as I thought it would be."

He did not want to discuss which schools or coaches approached him.

"I'm going to let it be a surprise," he said.

A day off

Sophomore Otto Porter said it was a little difficult for his team to sit around Friday and wait for the title game after playing Thursday.

"We didn't have nothing to do," Porter said. "We just came to practice ready to just go. We came and watched a couple games. We watched the Class 3 game, and we watched the Portageville game also."

Porter dominated

Porter played well during the final four, posting double-doubles in both games.

He said that he is looking to improve his inside game during the offseason. He plans to work on his footwork, posting up and inside-contain defense.

Porter said he thinks that the team can make another run at the title next year.

"We just worked real hard for it this year," he said. "Our team just came together and said that we wanted to win it and so we made it happen.

"We can [be back] if we just work hard next year. If we just get the team back involved and working real hard, we're going to be back."