Holiday Tournament Stock Risers: Southwest Missouri (Small-School)
Holiday tournaments around the Ozarks brought out the best in local stars. Below are the small-school players that raised their profile with sensational weeks.
2018 G Cade Coffman, Mountain Grove
In a tournament that featured many of the area’s top scorers, Coffman put on a bucket-getting clinic all week. The 6-foot-3 wing averaged 25 points, becoming the 32nd player to do so in the tournament’s 72-year history. Coffman is just the 22nd player to ever score 100 points in a single event. Mountain Grove remained undefeated by knocking off Class 5s Nixa and Kickapoo for a Blue and Gold championship.
2019 F Trent McBride, Eminence
He’s been a double-double machine since his freshman year, but the 6-foot-7 big has taken his game to a new level. McBride continues to dominate the paint, rebound, rim protect and score with an array of moves, but he also has a silky smooth faceup jumper and finds shooters out of doubles. He averaged 18 points and 13.5 rebounds in Eminence’s Cabool Holiday Tournament title run, including 26 points and 17 rebounds against state-ranked Dora in the semifinals.
2019 Ayden Stone, Thayer
The 6-foot-6 big was his typical, dominant self all week, posting three double-doubles in his four games. Stone averaged 10.5 points, 9.5 rebounds and a pair of blocks with a sluggish game against MV-BT/Liberty holding his numbers back. Stone had a great showing in the Cabool Holiday Tournament championship against McBride, posting 14 points, 12 rebounds and a pair of blocks.
2018 G/F Anthony Stanford, Forsyth
Stanford is without question the best defender in the Ozarks and he proved it yet again during Forsyth’s title run in the Walnut Grove Holiday Classic. In the championship game he held Missouri 3-Point King Logan Thomazin to just 14 points. Thomazin averages 25 PPG and has had a 48 point bomb this season, but couldn’t manage a single point in the fourth quarter because of Stanford’s length and athleticism. He’s a big, physical presence but laterally quick enough to defend on the perimeter. He’s so competitive that he can’t allow a single shot to go uncontested. The 6-foot-4 wing also scored 22 points against Grove.
2020 G Ethan Fagre, Richland
The 6-foot-1 combo guard entered the Walnut Grove Tournament leading his team in nearly every major stat category, including 20.6 points on 55 percent shooting from the field and 45 percent from deep. He left with one of the best offensive performances of the week, averaging 26.3 points with a pair of 30-point games. It’s taken Fagre just 11 games to reach the 250-point mark this season.