Muddy River Showcase: Monroe City’s success to be well represented on Missouri boys roster

The inaugural Muddy River Showcase is taking place June 18 at John Wood Community College’s Student Activity Center. The Illinois vs. Missouri format for senior prep basketball players will feature a girls game at 3 p.m. with the boys game to follow at 5 p.m. Admission is $10 at the door and all seating is general admission.

QUINCY — The success of the Monroe City boys basketball team over the past four seasons cannot be topped by any Clarence Cannon Conference opponent.

The Class of 2022 went 28-0 with four CCC championships in the past four years.

Add in a state runner-up finish, a third-place state trophy and four district titles and the senior group will be remembered as one of the best Titletown has ever produced.

So it seems only fitting for the Panthers to be well represented then on a team of Missouri all-stars.

Monroe City will have four players participating in the inaugural Muddy River Showcase, which takes place June 18 at John Wood Community College’s Student Activity Center. The Illinois vs. Missouri showcase will feature a girls game at 3 p.m. and a boys game at 5 p.m.

Tickets will be general admission and $10 at the gate. There are no advance ticket sales.

“I’m looking forward to seeing those guys on the floor together one last time,” said Monroe City coach Brock Edris, who will guide the Missouri all-stars. “They achieved a tremendous amount in their careers, and it was a pleasure to get to work with them every day.”

The group will include JWCC signees Joshua and Josiah Talton, Jaedyn Robertson and Kyle Hays.

Joshua Talton was a two-time first-team all-state selection and the Missouri Basketball Coaches Association’s Class 3 Co-Player of the Year, as well as the CCC Player of the year to go along with scoring more than 1,600 points in his career. His twin brother, Josiah, was an All-CCC selection and one of Northeast Missouri’s most gifted passers and creators.

Robertson became a valuable inside-outside presence for the Panthers as the team’s second-leading scorer and second-leading 3-point shooter. Hays was a three-sport standout who quarterbacked the Monroe City football team to the state semifinals, made the state tournament field in golf and led the basketball team in assists.

They will be joined by three other CCC standouts in Highland’s Drew Mallett and Cameron Bringer and Palmyra’s Alex Loman. Mallett and Bringer are three-sport standouts who helped the Highland football team enjoy its best season in 30 years and both medaled at the state track meet. Loman was the catcher for Palmyra’s district championship baseball team.

Cortland Watson, a first-team all-stater in football who quarterbacked Hannibal to the Class 4 state title game, was a potent shooter and scorer for the Pirates this winter. 

Knox County’s Jacob Becker gives Missouri size and someone who can play above the rim, and Canton’s Dalton Berhorst is another stout player with the pedigree of leading one of the area’s most consistent programs.