Large and in charge: Canton’s size advantage spearheads second-half surge, leads to spot in state title game

COLUMBIA, Mo. — How much of an advantage did the Canton boys basketball team have on the interior during Wednesday’s Class 2 semifinal game against Puxico?

“A lot,” Tigers coach Dalton Armontrout said.

As the game progressed, that edge became more and more apparent.

All the Tigers had to do was recognize it.

“We did a good job of that,” Armontrout said. “We usually have the advantage every game just because of our size, and we took advantage of it tonight again.”

The Tigers imposed their will on the Indians, shooting 61.7 percent from the field, outrebounding the Indians 40-16 and scoring 50 points in the paint in a 65-50 victory at Mizzou Arena. Canton advances to the state championship game against Eugene at 8 p.m. Thursday. The Eagles, the No. 1 team in the final Missouri Basketball Coaches Association state poll, beat Lincoln 67-33 in Wednesday’s other semifinal.

This will be Canton’s first state championship game appearance in program history.

“It’s hard to put into words,” Armontrout said of what that means.

The Tigers, who boast four starters who are at least 6-foot-2, got to the rim virtually at will against the Indians, which have just one player taller than 6-foot-2. Nineteen of Canton’s 29 made field goals were layups.

“We really didn’t take very many bad shots that game,” Tigers senior forward Bleu Taylor said.

That was never more apparent than during the Tigers’ 16-1 run over a four-minute span in the third quarter. Six of the Tigers’ seven made field goals during that spurt were layups, and the Tigers went from trailing 31-26 with 4:55 left in the quarter to leading 42-32 with a minute to go.

Armontrout said the five-point deficit did not cause any panic in his troops.

“We’ve been there before,” Armontrout said. “We were down by five against Harrisburg (in the fourth quarter of the quarterfinals). We’ve been in those types of situations. Experience pays off.”

The Indians trimmed that lead to 42-38 on a Jett Hancock 3-pointer five seconds into the fourth quarter, but the Tigers scored the next 10 points — six of which came on layups — to stretch the lead to 52-38 with 5:56 to go. The Indians never got within single digits the remainder of the game.

“We controlled the tempo toward the end of the fourth quarter and took what they gave us,” Armontrout said.

Preston Brewer, the Tigers’ 6-foot-8 senior forward, led all players with 23 points and 14 rebounds, nearly had a double-double with 10 points and nine rebounds in the first half and had seven points during Canton’s third-quarter run.

Brewer, who came into the game averaging 24.7 points and 11.5 rebounds per contest, was only mildly satisfied with what would be a career night for a fair share of players.

“I feel like I played OK,” Brewer said. “I feel like I could have asserted myself a little more on the offensive end and facilitated to guys because late in the second half, I felt like they were really focused on me. So I feel like if I would have asserted myself more. I could have hit guys cutting for more open layups, but we came out with the win. I need to play better defensively. I have to box out better. I still have things I need to clean up.”

Fourteen rebounds and needing to box out better?

“Being 6-8 helps,” Brewer said. “My dad preaches boxing out, so I guarantee when I go see him up on the concourse, he’s going to be like, ‘You have to box out.’”

As the Tigers extended their lead, Tyler Frazier simultaneously found his groove. The 6-foot-3 forward scored 12 of his 14 points in the second half and scored the Tigers’ final seven points of the game.

“He was kind of soft there in the first three quarters, then he finally got physical, took it in and made some layups,” Armontrout said. “That’s what we need out of Tyler. He can do that any given night. We just have to find that right button to push.”

Frazier got more comfortable as the game progressed.

“My teammates did a great job of keeping the game up, and I wasn’t really doing my part, then I finally helped chipped in, and we took control of the game,” Frazier said.

Indians junior guard Landan Burchard, who was averaging 21 points per game entering the semifinals, matched his season average plus one and made five of his 10 3-point attempts. The rest of the Indians had just 28 points on 10-of-33 shooting from the field and 3-of-13 shooting from beyond the arc.

“We expected that,” Armontrout said of Burchard’s scoring prowess. “(Burchard) got his, but nobody else did.”

Another stout defensive effort and more offensive assertiveness could translate to the Tigers’ first state title in school history on Thursday.

“We’re going to have to get a good night’s sleep, be active on the defensive end, get good shots again, push the ball up the floor, and be calm with the ball,” said Taylor, who made both of his field goal attempts and had three assists on Wednesday. “Being able to push the ball and stay calm at the same time isn’t something a lot of teams can do, but we’ve done it.”