For years, the Jefferson City Jays have had to watch the championship game of their home tournament, the Joe Machens Great 8 Classic, from the stands, hoping the next year would be their chance to finally play for the title.
That chance finally came Friday night, and the Jays didn’t let the opportunity slip through their fingertips.
Jefferson City led for the final 30 minutes and 30 seconds of the championship game, ending a 17-year drought with a 69-57 victory against the Fatima Comets at Fleming Fieldhouse.
The Jays, who were playing in the Classic title game for the first time since 2007, won the program’s eighth title in the event, their first since 2005.
“I’m really proud of the win for our guys, because they really earned it,” said Jefferson City coach Josh Buffington, who also won the Classic championship in 2014 when he was head coach at Helias.
“It’s huge for our program. We had a lot of alumni here tonight, former players and former coaches. It’s huge for our school. And I’m proud of our community, supporting not only us but every team in the tournament this week.”
This is the Jays’ first regular-season tournament title since they finished first in the Owensville Tournament in January 2021.
The team Jefferson City beat in that championship game? It was also the Fatima Comets.
“They were just alarmingly fast,” Fatima coach Ryan Robertson said. “We thought we had a pretty good zone attack, but you can’t mimic the length, the speed. You try to throw the ball over the top and they get their hands on everything.”
Gallery: Jefferson City Boys Basketball vs. Fatima
Fatima began the game with an alley-oop pass from Cooper Kleffner to Nate Brandt for a dunk on the game’s first possession. Then, after Brandt blocked a shot, Matthew Robertson grabbed the rebound and went coast-to-coast for a layup, giving the Comets a 4-0 lead just 62 seconds into the game.
It was early in the game, but what happened next for the Jays proved to be a crucial two-minute stretch that shifted the lead in their favor for good.
Steven Samuels swished a 3-pointer from the left wing, then Kendric Johnson made a steal and passed the ball ahead to Samuels for a layup in transition. That put Jefferson City ahead 5-4 with 6:30 left in the first quarter.
Jordan Martin then made a short jumper for the Jays and Johnson made another steal and kept the ball this time, going in for a right-handed layup to complete the 9-0 run.
“That was a huge run for us,” Buffington said. “They came out and ran a nice little lob set, they were prepared on their first play. We didn’t finish and they came down and scored again.
“For our guys not to tighten up and get to where we could start guarding and trapping, we forced them into some turnovers, got downhill and played in open space. Who doesn’t have fun doing that as a kid?”
The rest of the game was an uphill climb for Fatima, which was playing in the Classic for the first time and came away with a runner-up finish.
“We weren’t scared coming out,” Robertson said. “What I love about these guys is no matter how big the tree is, they just try to chop it down.”
Jefferson City led 19-11 after one quarter, then Fatima battled back to make the score 23-20 after a basket by Brandt.
It was one of four occasions in which the Comets cut their deficit to three, but they couldn’t get any closer.
Robertson praised Samuels for his play. The Jefferson City senior answered with big baskets twice when Fatima cut the deficit to three points.
“Samuels was just a wrecking ball tonight,” Robertson said. “What a performance.”
Samuels finished with a double-double of 27 points and 11 rebounds to lead the Jays.
“That’s a huge game for him statistically,” Buffington said, “but the motor he plays with is something that every little kid in the gym should be saying, ‘I want to play like that.’”
Samuels hit a 3 in the closing second of the first half, stretching the Jays’ lead to 10 points, but Fatima’s Levi Robinson caught a 60-foot pass from Brandt and scored a layup at the buzzer to make the score 35-27 at halftime.
The Comets trimmed the Jays’ lead to 39-36 midway through the third quarter, but Jefferson City used another 9-0 run to widen the gap and go into the fourth quarter with a 52-43 advantage.
Brandt scored a layup in transition to cut Jefferson City’s lead to 54-49 early in the fourth quarter, but that was as close as Fatima would get the rest of the way.
Martin stretched the lead back to 10 with a dunk with 2:53 to play and the Jays made 9-of-12 free throws in the final 2:34 to seal the win.
Samuels grabbed a rebound off a 3-point attempt with :37 to play and was able to hold onto the ball until the final buzzer sounded.
“We knew going into the game that we haven’t won this in a long time,” Samuels said. “It feels good to be able to have our names in the history books, to be able to make history.”
Martin, who finished with 17 points on 7-of-8 shooting and grabbed eight rebounds, was named the Great 8 Classic MVP.
“He’s a competitor,” Buffington said. “He loves big moments and he loves big games.”
Samuels was named to the all-tournament team for the Jays, along with Johnson -- who scored 11 points -- and Nelson Shinkle.
Brandt and Robinson were Fatima’s representatives on the all-tournament team. Brandt scored a game-high 29 points and Robinson finished with 14 points.
“He’s a guy that, when you need a bucket, he’ll go get you one,” Robertson said of Brandt. “He’s had guys draped all over him for three games, and if you’re getting 29 points against the Jefferson City Jays, that’s pretty impressive.”
Fatima struggled from long range in the loss, shooting just 3-of-22 beyond the arc.
“We were shooting 25-footers instead of shots from 19 feet, 9 inches,” Robertson said.
Fatima (7-4), ranked No. 10 in Class 4, will return to action next Friday with a Show-Me Conference home game against Linn. The girls game starts at 6 p.m., followed by the boys game at 7:30 p.m.
Jefferson City (7-3) will turn around and play next week in the Kaminsky Classic at Joplin High School. The Jays will play Webb City in the first round at 5 p.m. Thursday.
For years, Buffington has been a big believer the Great 8 Classic can be a turning point in a team’s season, even with two months still to play in the regular season.
The past three days have him feeling great about his program moving forward.
“Whether you come in here and go 1-2, 2-1 or 3-0, you really find out what you team is made of,” Buffington said. “We had to be very physical all three nights, and mentally, we had to grind through it.”