Richland rallies for district three-peat

ESSEX — Once. Twice. Three times a district champion.

The Richland Rebels boys basketball team made history Friday night when it defeated the Delta Bobcats 80-67 to win its third Class 1 District 2 championship in a row — a first for the Stoddard County school.

“It feels amazing,” Richland senior Tucker Hughes said. “Making school history is always going to feel good. I can't feel much better.”

Richland coach Matt Cline has been at the helm of all three district title teams.

“I'm proud of them,” Cline said. “Three trips into the state tournament is really something to be proud of. The boys have stuck together. … They've put it together last couple weeks and I'm proud of them.”

Believe it or not, the Rebels (17-11) trailed Delta by 14 points early in the second quarter (30-16) before their offense came alive, closing the first half on a 27-4 run to take a 43-34 lead to the locker room.

“They were collapsing in (on defense),” Hughes said, “and we got it out to our shooters — and they hit their shots.”

Leading the charge during that run was junior Gary Tilley, who scored 14 of his game-high 32 points during that run, including draining four big 3-pointers.

“We switched our defense (from man to zone) and (we) started playing harder,” Cline said of that second-quarter run. “We were getting outplayed. We were trying to out jump them instead of putting our butt on somebody. And they wanted it more than we did. But then we finally started using our athleticism, blocking out a little bit, pushing the ball and getting back on defense.”

However, the Bobcats (16-13) did not give up, despite trailing 63-49 at the start of the fourth quarter. Delta opened the period on an 11-1 run to trail by just four points (64-60).

But that's when the Rebels regrouped, closing the game on a 16-7 run to clinch the district three-peat.

“We stressed on keeping our intensity up,” Hughes said. “And I think we did a good job with that and just shutting them down, not letting them get too many open shots. Just keep playing hard — that was our that was our game plan, keep playing hard.”

Fellow Richland senior Eric Williams echoed his teammate's sentiments.

“We rebounded hard,” Williams said of the final period. “We played together as a team. We didn't get mad at each other.”

Hughes added 16 points to join Tilley in double figures for Richland, while Eric Williams had nine and Hayden Conner finished with seven.

“I thought Hunter (Sanders) and Tucker did a good job of handling the ball out front,” Cline said. “We got a little spastic at times, but I thought Gary — and all of them — did a good job of trying to finish at the rim.”

Bryce Cox paced the Bobcats with 30 points, while Isaiah Berry added 11 and Paxton Hornbuckle finished with six.

The Rebels will take on Risco in a Class 1 sectional match up on Monday at Gideon High School. Tipoff time is set for 6:30 p.m.