Pierson pounds the paint, Cadets move on to state

For eight minutes, Ryan Pierson was a high school equivalent to a mid-90s era Shaquille O’Neal.

The 6-foot-10 behemoth from Town and Country was a relentless force in the second quarter of Saturday’s Class 5 quarterfinal at UMSL.

For eight minutes, Pierson picked up the CBC basketball team like it was his nephew and put it on his shoulders for a stroll through the zoo.

The Cadets are going back to the state ‘final four’ for the first time since 1997, and, were it not for Pierson’s one quarter of dominance, they would likely be turning in their uniforms instead of packing them for Columbia.

In CBC’s impressive 69-57 win over Webster Groves, Pierson finished with 24 points and 12 rebounds.

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“It felt great. It’s not for my stats, it’s for the team,” Pierson said. “We want to win. If that is what it takes then that is what we’re going to do.”

The bulk of those gaudy digits were put up before halftime.

The Cadets ended the first quarter with a 9-0 run that gave them a 15-11 lead. Then came the second and Pierson, the West County Journal Athlete of the Week, could have well emerged from the phone booth wearing blue tights and a red cape instead of purple and gold.

After Webster tied the game at 15, Pierson scored six straight baskets. He then missed a dunk right in front of the vocal Statesmen student section which let him know all about it. But he immediately recovered and knocked down a shot and drew a foul in the process.

“I knew then he was really into the game,” CBC coach Bob McCormack said. “When he is doing things like that we are hard to beat because of our slashers and shooters.”

While Pierson and the rest of the Cadets were limiting Webster to one and done on its end of the floor, the center scored his 10th point of the quarter and then his 12th, which made it 29-20 Cadets and the CBC followers to chant, ‘You can’t stop him. You can’t stop him.’

CBC outscored Webster 16-13 in the quarter with junior Seth Jackson being the only other Cadet to score in the quarter other than Pierson.

When the halftime stat sheets were passed out to press row, Pierson’s line told the story; 16 points on 8-of-11 shooting, eight rebounds and one block. Pierson did miss three free throws in the first half.

But he made up for that by going 4-for-4 in the second.

“Our full focus was to throw the ball in to Ryan early and often and once he got going it was like, we’re going to feed the big fella.

We’re going to keep feeding him and if he’s not hungry anymore, we’re going to keep feeding him,” McCormack said.

Fittingly, a one-handed jam by Pierson was the perfect exclamation mark on a 23-13 fourth quarter run.

The 235-pounder, who has signed to play at Northeastern University, has been the monster in the middle all season for the Cadets.

Plagued at times by inconsistency, Pierson has still averaged a double-double all season long.

Now he will have his chance to show the remainder of the state what he is capable of. The Cadets will face Oakville tomorrow (Thursday) in a semifinal at 6:50 p.m.

“We’re coming together really well in this postseason,” Pierson said. “We were pretty nervous coming in. Before the game, we knew we could make it to state. During the game, we were all playing aggressive and nobody really backed down.”

Especially West County’s mini Shaq.

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