Palmyra exacts its revenge, beats top-seeded Monroe City for district championship

PALMYRA, Mo. — Ryan McKinney was all smiles as he was surrounded by a sea of jubilant Palmyra fans.

“We had nothing to lose coming into this game,” the junior guard said. “I mean, we had already lost to them three times. But, you know, if you win the one that matters, those three losses don’t even matter.”

And for McKinney and his teammates, they no longer do.

The Palmyra boys basketball team, which dropped all three games with Monroe City this season, including a 24-point thrashing just 17 nights earlier, washed away those disappointments Friday in the Class 3 District 6 championship game.

Second-seeded Palmyra used a suffocating defense to limit top-seeded Monroe City to 29-percent shooting from the field and thwarted the visitors three times in the closing 30 seconds to secure a 36-33 victory and earn a spot in Monday night’s sectional at top-ranked Principia.

Both teams registered a season low in points scored in the kind of defensive battle that Palmyra coach Brian Rea envisioned.

“Both teams know each other really well,” he said. “Take away the strengths of each team and you just have to make some plays at the end. And we made a couple of extra plays.

“We didn’t play great. We didn’t finish or shoot the ball well. But our kids played with heart that we haven’t played with against them in three previous meetings.”

The game was tied eight times through three quarters and the lead changed hands on six occasions in the final period. Palmyra took the lead for good at 32-31 on two free throws by Luke Sheppard with 1 minute, 49 seconds remaining.

Brent Holland missed two free throws 17 seconds later that would have enabled Monroe City to regain the lead, and Sheppard’s bounce pass then found Mason Smith for a backdoor layup with a minute to go to push the advantage to 34-31.

Two free throws by Quincy Mayfield cut the deficit to one before McKinney sank the first of two throws to make it 35-33 with 37.1 seconds left.

After a timeout, Mayfield drove through the lane and put up a contested shot in traffic that missed and went out of bounds off a Palmyra player. Trey Smyser’s 3-point try from the right corner off the inbounds play that would have given Monroe City the lead was short off the rim.

Monroe City had a final opportunity to tie the score after Sheppard missed the second of two free throws with 15.7 seconds to go. Mayfield attempted to draw contact on a drive to the basket, but his shot was cleanly blocked by Sheppard, and Smyser’s off-balanced desperation toss from in front of his bench was well off the mark as time expired.

“I knew we needed to get that stop if we wanted to win,” Sheppard said. “We really locked in on defense. We knew that’s what we had to do to stop them.”

Palmyra hounded Monroe City on the perimeter and swarmed to the ball when it entered the lane. Monroe City made just 5 of 22 field goal attempts in the second half and 12 of 42 overall, including a 2-for-14 showing from 3-point range.

“Our goal was to not let them get going, get easy shots, play more physical than we have,” Rea said. “And I think we did that. And we made some free throw that we needed to.”

It was a complete reversal from the Feb. 11 matchup when Monroe City rolled to a 68-44 victory on its home court.

“(In that game) we shot it as well as we could have,” Monroe City coach Brock Edris said. “I didn’t expect that (Friday night). I knew it was going to be a very competitive game.

“They did a good job of being physical with us down low and their length gave us some trouble with our guards trying to score. It stinks to lose, but it’s hats off to Palmyra. They played a better game. They earned it.”

Monroe City attacked the paint early against Palmyra’s four-guard lineup by getting the ball to the 6-foot-4 Holland in the post on its opening three possessions. But it managed just one basket during that sequence and held a 9-6 lead after one quarter.

Monroe City twice stretched the advantage to six points early in the second period, but it then went more than five minutes without scoring.

Palmyra, which made just 6 of 21 field goal attempts in the first half and shot just 32 percent overall (missing all 12 3-point attempts), tied it at 18 on two Hudson Bock free throws with 4.2 seconds left.

The teams combined to make only 5 of 22 shots in the third quarter, which ended with Palmyra ahead 26-24 after Sheppard blocked Smyser’s driving shot on one end and scored a layup on the other.

Smyser, who made five 3-pointers and scored 22 points in Monroe City’s semifinal victory over Clark County, managed just a lone 3-pointer against Palmyra.

“You could go down the list of guys that have had games of over 15 points, just trying to find the hot hand,” Edris said. “And then you have games where nobody’s got the hot hand. If we get one or two more shots to fall, we’re having a different conversation.”

Holland was the only player on either team to score in double figures with 12 points, with his turnaround jumper from the low post off a sideline inbounds pass giving Monroe City its last lead at 31-30 with 2:02 remaining.

“It happens,” Holland said. “If you don’t shoot good, then how do you expect to score?”

“It’s just one of those games,” said Mayfield, who was limited to eight points. “When you don’t score, you don’t win games.”

Monroe City, which had won three of the previous four postseason meetings between the teams and was the only team to beat Palmyra on its home court this season, bows out with a 19-7 record.

Ranked 10th in the final Missouri Basketball Coaches Association poll, it won only four of its final eight games.

For Palmyra, now 24-5, it has a tall order awaiting with a Principia team that ran its record to 27-1 Friday night with a convincing 82-45 victory over Whitfield in the St. Charles Duchesne district finals.

“Show up to practice tomorrow and be ready to play,” McKinney said, still beaming. “I mean, why stop now.”