Not to take anything away from Hazelwood Central ... Hazelwood Central is a good enough team, but couldn't play with any of the teams we played with in Springfield.

The youngsters gave the seniors a new lease on life on Friday. It was their time and they didn't want to leave without the opportunity to win a state title.

This is always a pivotal point. This is a telling point. ... We took a good team out of their game tonight.

We knew they wanted to run and we tried to stop them from doing that. Man, those guards are good.

I told them last year, I don't know if you all are coming back, but I know we're coming back.

We were just trying to get to Columbia too quickly. We were rushing. That happens. You get anxious and you rush. When you rush, you look bad, and we're not a team that can look good rushing. That's what happened.