Feb. 24, 2018

NEW BLOOMFIELD, Mo. --- If you've never been in the zone, you should really try it, you'd like it.

You can't make it happen, it just happens. Why? Nobody knows, but we do know this --- the better you are, the more often it does.

Funny how that works.

Those days when even Michael Jordan shrugs in disbelief, those days when everything you touch turns to gold.

Or in this case, when everything you shoot touches nothing but net.

Harrisburg's Cade Combs wasn't just in the zone Saturday, he was in the O-Zone. Because he was out of this world, simply brilliant.

And what a time for it to happen.

The 6-foot-4 senior went 8-for-8 on 3-pointers and poured in an eye-popping 48 points as the Bulldogs outlasted the New Bloomfield Wildcats 74-67 in the championship game of Class 2 District 8 Tournament on Saturday at New Bloomfield.

Combs wasn't hot, he was the sun. Blistering. But when he found out shortly after the game he finished with 48 points, he was almost speechless.

After a pause and a stammer ...

"Wow," Combs said. "Honestly, I had no idea."

That's the thing about being in the zone, when you're there, you don't even know it.

"I was locked in, I was ready to go," Combs said. "I woke up this morning at 7:30 and couldn't go back to sleep --- these are the days I've been dreaming about my whole life."

Combs was averaging 20 points and his previous career-high was 38.

"That's what seniors should do in big games, it's what great players should do ... I'm really proud of him," said first-year Bulldogs coach Kyle Fisher, who was an All-State performer on Harrisburg's 2006 state championship team.

"He was tremendous. It seemed like every time New Bloomfield went on a run and got close, he hit a big shot to stop the bleeding."

To put the 48 points in a 32-minute high school game in perspective --- it equals a 60-point output in a college game, a 72-point effort in the NBA.

Wow, is right.

It's the second-highest total in Harrisburg school history, second only to the 51-point effort in 2006 ---- by?

None other than Kyle Fisher. Against?

None other than New Bloomfield.

In a tournament, no less --- but that was only the Sturgeon Tournament, not the district.

All New Bloomfield coach Tim Gilmore could do was tip his hat.

"I felt like we challenged him and tried to do the best we could," Gilmore said. "But when a kid has a day, a kid has a day --- that's what great players do in big situations.

"He stepped up and knocked down a lot of huge shots."

This bout was the finale of a stacked district that featured no less than four state-ranked teams, ending with No. 5 Harrisburg vs. No. 9 New Bloomfield.

The top-seeded Bulldogs (22-6) led wire-to-wire, which is not to say it was easy. Combs was amazingly consistent --- he scored 12 points in the first quarter as the Bulldogs took 17-14 lead, and 12 more in the second when the lead exploded to 39-22 at the half.

The first half was brutally over-officiated --- a staggering 27 fouls were called and both teams were in the double-bonus at the start of the second quarter. One of those foul victims was New Bloomfield's 6-5 senior, Jak Kitchens, who sat the final 4 1/2 minutes of the half after picking up his third foul.

The Bulldogs promptly finished the half on a 16-2 burst to take the 17-point lead.

"He's a heck of a player, probably the best played we faced all year," Fisher said of Kitchens. "Our plan the whole game was to attack him and see if we couldn't get him in foul trouble, a little bit. I felt that was big in the first half when he went out and we went on a big run.

"But credit the New Bloomfield kids, they fought their tails off and didn't go quietly."

Indeed.

"I thought we were a little sluggish in the second quarter, and that was disappointing," Gilmore said. "But we came out in the second half and played our butts off. To get it from 17 (the largest lead in the second half was actually 20) down to five, that just shows the commitment we have in this basketball program."

Combs tallied 13 points in the third quarter, but the Wildcats (21-7) were able to trim the lead to 56-45 entering the fourth. Then, Kitchens scored 11 of his 31 points in the first four minutes of the fourth quarter, and New Bloomfield was within 66-59.

"He's a great player and great competitor," Combs said of Kitchens. "I've played with him for a long time, he's one of my good friends."

But Kitchens, who also grabbed 10 rebounds, was whistled for his fifth foul with 3:32 left.

"That," Gilmore said, "was crushing."

That, in all reality, ended it. The Wildcats did get as close as five points on a 3-pointer by Jalen Martin with 8 seconds left, before Combs --- fittingly --- finished the scoring with two free throws a second later.

"I'm just so happy for the kids, they've worked their whole lives for this," Fisher said. "I'm happy for the school, happy the community, happy for Harrisburg ... it means a lot to everybody."

Then there's the other side.

"I told the kids (after the game)," Gilmore said, "you'll never get this back. High school basketball is the funnest thing you'll ever do, and I'm so proud of them as a family and how much they grew this year."

"Today, we just came up a little short."

IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII

THE DAY STARTED AS IT ENDED --- the New Bloomfield girls, like the boys, got dropped into a deep deficit, made a valiant comeback, but eventually came up short in a 56-49 district-championship game setback to Sturgeon.

While Combs could not miss Saturday, the Lady Wildcats, at times, had a difficult time making anything.

"We had a tough time shooting today," Lady Wildcats coach Brett Craighead said. "When that happens, it effects your defense, it effects everything."

It was tied 14-14 after one quarter, but the next two quarters proved to be the difference. The No. 2 seed Lady Buldogs (20-8) outscored the top-seeded Lady Wildcats (19-9) 12-6 in the second quarter to take a 26-20 lead at the break, before stretching the margin to 39-26 entering the fourth.

"Those two quarters," Craighead said, "I thought we were a little lackadaisical and slow ... we just couldn't quite get in the flow. We just couldn't get anything going."

But in the fourth, the Lady Wildcats hit more 3-pointers than they had in the previous three quarters --- five of them, three by junior Parker Pitzen, who finished with 12 points, and two by senior Madi Craighead, who ended her great career with 15 points.

"We could have laid down and quit," Craighead said, "but I loved the way they stormed back in the fourth quarter. They didn't quit."

New Bloomfield got as close as five points down the stretch, but Sturgeon did what it had to do --- the Lady Bulldogs didn't turn it over and they made their free throws, including nine straight at one point.

"That's how you win a ball game," Craighead said. "This is disappointing, but you have to give them credit."

In the Zone: Combs lights up 'Cats

for 48, Bulldogs nab district crown

Photo courtesy of Paula Allen

Loeffler's Link

Harrisburg senior Cade Combs puts up a short jumper over New Bloomfield's Jak Kitchens during Saturday's Class 2 District 8 championship game at New Bloomfield. Combs finished with a career-high 48 points in the Bulldogs' 74-67 win over the Wildcats.