Oakville falls to Hillcrest in Class 5 title game

Chris Lee/Post-Dispatch | Hillcrest’s Trey Starks (22) leaves his feet to take a shot over Oakville’s Garrett Reeg (4) and Danny Zehner during the Class 5 championship game Saturday at Mizzou Arena.

COLUMBIA, MO. — The Oakville basketball team returned to Mizzou Arena with some unfinished business after ending up fourth in Class 5 a year ago.

But the Tigers, who led by six points with 4 minutes, 36 seconds left in the fourth quarter, were not able to close out the Class 5 championship game late Saturday.

Blame part of that on Springfield Hillcrest’s 6-foot-5 sophomore Dorial Green, who sparked a decisive run in the final minutes to lead the Hornets to a come-from-behind 54-49 victory and claim the school’s second state championship.

“We came here last year and we’ve been saying we were just happy to get here,” Oakville senior forward Garrett Reeg said. “We came back and we knew we could win tonight and we were three minutes away from doing it.”

Oakville (27-5) had won 17 consecutive games, including the Tigers’ 47-44 overtime victory against CBC in the semifinals on Thursday. The Tigers led for much of the night before Hillcrest took control with a 15-2 run late in the fourth quarter.

“It was a heck of a ball game to be a part of,” Oakville coach Nick Traxler said. “I think both teams came out and really wanted to win it. About 3 minutes and 36 seconds left to go in the game we made some decisions that kind of cost us down the stretch.”

Senior guard Toraino Hellems led the Tigers with 19 points on six-of-17 shooting. Reeg added nine points, six rebounds and three blocked shots. Junior guard Javier Duren scored nine points.

Green, who also is one of the country’s top wide-receiver prospects, took over late in the fourth quarter — he had 10 points, five rebounds and two blocked shots in the final 4:17 — and finished with 21 points and 13 rebounds as Hillcrest (25-7) won its 13th straight game.

Senior guard Trey Starks added a game-high 22 points on six-of-15 shooting. Senior guard Issac Sade added 10 points.

“I thought their two kids that could score, Starks and Green, just had monster games against us,” Traxler said. “They are just really good players and they did the things they needed to do in those last three minutes to win.”

The Tigers led by six points after a layup by senior forward Joe Plassmeyer with 4:38 remaining in the final quarter before the Hornets broke the game open with their 15-2 run.

Oakville made just three of 10 shots in the final four minutes and missed six consecutive shots during that stretch.

“In the back of my mind, I know that we can score and we’ve got some players that can make big plays, and we kind of just waited on that,” Hillcrest coach John Schaefer said. “We didn’t press up until the end, and I think that was probably the key to the game.”