Hazelwood West Varsity Basketball Holds Off Parkway Central

The Missouri state high school basketball playoffs may not begin until next week, but varsity boys basketball coach Cary Lewis is already in playoff mode.

The Wildcats rookie head man has been pushing his team, for more than a month, to be at their peak once the district playoffs begin this coming Monday, and Wednesday night at Parkway Central High, except for a few lapses, Hazelwood West looked playoff ready in a solid 58-49 win over the Colts.

“It’s do or die time right now,” Lewis said after the victory. “Anything can happen once you get to the playoffs. So we’ve got to be ready.”

Hazelwood West will begin what it hopes will be a long playoff run in Missouri Class 5 District 5, which will be hosted by De Smet High in Creve Coeur.

The Wildcats were named the second seed in the district, earning them a first-round bye, and will play the winner of Monday’s first-round game between Parkway Central and Ritenour.

That district semifinal game is scheduled for Wednesday, Feb. 23, at DeSmet, and is tentatively scheduled to tip-off at 7 p.m.

“I fully expect Parkway Central to win that game against Ritenour,” Lewis said. “So we’re expecting to see these guys again.

"It’ll be a good game, just like tonight was.”

The Wildcats trailed in the early going, as the Colts got off to sizzling shooting start from the field. Parkway connected on five of its first seven shot attempts in the first quarter, and led 13-12 when the period ended.

In the second period though, West turned the tide, outscoring Central 15-8 to take a 27-21 halftime lead.

Senior guard Darris Smith, who became Hazelwood West’s all-time leading scorer in a Monday win over St. Charles, gave the Wildcats the lead for good midway through the second quarter, when he drove past two Colt defenders for a sprawling layup that brought the West bench to its feet.

Smith, who finished with a team-high 16 points, later added a three-pointer, and found teammate Charles Fitzgerald for a short basket that helped give West its halftime bulge.

The key stretch in the game though, came early in the third, when Smith and teammate Landers Riddle, who had 13 points, drained back-to-back threes that gave the Wildcats their biggest lead of the night, at 38-23.

Central tried to rally, and got as close as eight points in the fourth quarter. But Smith put the game away for the Wildcats with another driving layup and three-point play late in the game that gave West a 54-40 lead.

“A whole lot of teams are going to be done playing basketball beginning (Monday) Feb. 21,” Lewis said. “We’re not going to be one of those teams.

"We’re going into districts, not just to play well," he said. "We’re going there to win it, and I want us to be ready.”