By MATT PIKE
In a game that looked completely different from their semifinal matchup against Hayti, the Penney Hornets controlled the tempo the entire game, dominating the Clopton Hawks in the MSHSAA Class 2 third place game 50-25.
The Hornets came into the matchup as the #3 seed from Class 2 District 16, upsetting several teams along the way. Head Coach Doug Burnett says it's awesome to finish third even trying their best as a team to not listen to the outside noise and rankings.
"We know what we were building inside our locker room, we know what's important to us, so for us making this run and for especially myself personally, is really special because the two of these (seniors Jacob Miller and Isac Bales Rodriguez) deserve it," Burnett tells reporters after the game. "They've done hours of offseason work, hours of before school work, hours of after school work, they are just relentless in the gym and have set the standard for what it's supposed to look like to be a high school athlete."
The Hornets absolutely dominated the first half defensively, the Hawks having no answer for Miller as he scored 11 of his team leading 22 points in the first half. On the defensive side, Miller also recorded three of his six blocks and by halftime Penney led Clopton 28-5, allowing just a single two point shot in the first quarter and a three point shot in the second quarter from the Hawks. The defense his team played was something Burnett was proud of following the loss to Hayti.
"Great defensive game from our guys locked in coming off a tough loss last night, came back and chose to give their best effort and be one of the two teams that gets to finish their season on a win," Burnett says. "These two guys (Miller and Bales Rodriguez) are really special people, special players and special people, and the rest of our team it meant a lot to them to be there for their seniors, so we chose that love is the most important thing in our locker room and so we love each other enough to give our best effort for them tonight."
In the second half the Hawks were able to score more, but Penney continued to control the game leading 41-17 at the end of the third quarter, and the low scoring carried into the final quarter with Clopton adding eight points to the Hornet's nine, on way to the final score of 50-25. The third place finish marks the best finish in school history for Hamilton. Miller says reflecting on his time at Hamilton, it's been very special to him.
"I've been lucky to be surrounded by great coaches and great players and especially this year I'm proud of how everybody stepped up, especially having a pretty young team, I'm proud of everybody stepping up and finishing strong," Miller says.
After finishing as runners up in football as well last year, both Miller and Bales Rodriguez have had quite the run with the Hornets. Bales Rodriguez says it's been an amazing time at Hamilton as well following that football run up with the third place finish.
"Coach Doug came in my sophomore year and he's been amazing, he's always worked with us, obviously he lives an hour and a half away so he's driving an hour and a half to come to our school and he stays late with us to get extra shots up," Bales Rodriguez says. "And our community is amazing, our teammates are amazing, it's just been an overall amazing experience."
Miller finished with 22 points and 12 rebounds to go with his six blocks. Hudson Creekmore added 10 points while Jared Cooley chipped in seven points and Bales Rodriguez added six points.
Hamilton loses just two seniors next season, and has several returning players including many that were in the starting lineup and played roles off the bench. The group of seniors though, as Burnett mentioned have been very special to not only the team, but to him as well.
"The reason I came to Penney, it's that simple, their dad called me and said hey we have an opening and we want you to be here, we want you to be here, and the two of them made me a promise I said ok I'm going to come but you have to promise me nobody is going to outwork you, and the two of them said you got it coach nobody is going to outwork us and they more than lived to their end of the bargain, and so these two are really special kids," Burnett says. "And our whole team this year has just been a special group of kids that just decided that love and trust and teamwork are what matter most in the world, which is hard, it's a hard world that we live in now that everybody on the outside is telling them look at me, look at me, look at me, and our locker room just chose to say look at we, look at we, look at we, that's a special group of kids."
Penney finishes the season 24-9.
You can follow Matt on X @KfeqMatt and St. Joseph Post @StJosephPost.