Holcomb Hornets honor seniors in season finale against Southland

HOLCOMB, Mo. - Last week, the snow and ice forced many cancellations across Southeast Missouri.

However, Holcomb was able to squeeze in one more regular season game on Saturday, Feb. 22 against the Southland Rebels. In doing so, the Hornets were able to use this last home game to honor the seniors of their winter sports.

Despite their 72-43 loss to the Rebels, senior Matthew Russom was proud to battle it out on their home court one last time.

“Maybe I don’t feel my best after a loss,” Russom said. “But I have a lot of respect for my guys. The whole season, we’ve really been working hard. The wins may not show it but we lost a lot of guys this year and the ones who stayed really committed. They showed up and tried hard every day and I take honor in playing with them.”

With the team's struggles, the Hornets cap their regular season 2-20. Still, following the senior example of Russom, head coach John Hixon and the rest of his players have learned to continue fighting adversity and playing with dignity.

According to Hixon, he learned from Russom to never let his head hang low after a tough loss.

“This team has faced so much adversity,” Hixon said. “From losing family members to losing teammates and the guys we have left have done such a fabulous job at overcoming this. I feel as though it’s my job, as coach, to teach them how to overcome adversity, but I feel as though Matt has taught me this more than anybody.”

Along with Russom, Gabrielle Harmon and Chloe Hendrix were both recognized as seniors for the girls basketball team. Emma Bader and Kali Furlow were also honored as senior cheerleaders.

Russom would put up four points as the main ball-handler for the Hornets in his last game on Holcomb’s floor. Along with him, freshman Mateo Martinez found the most points for the Hornets as he finished with 14.

Yet, the game belonged to the Rebels from the jump. Senior Lonnie (Trace) Gibson and junior Knoah Beal each scored 16 points in their victory over the Hornets.

Southland’s head coach Tyre Washington was happy to add one more game to the calendar before entering the post-season.

They conclude their schedule 14-11, giving Southland their first winning season in almost a decade. The last time was in 2016 when they went 17-10.

“We just needed one more competition to prepare for districts,” Washington said. “We had to drop a few games with the snow and so we were happy to pick this one up. We were able to try a few different line-ups and try our press and see how those would help us in the District tournament and they looked good today.”

While forging a historic season, the Rebel’s first matchup in the District tournament will be against Delta C-7. The Chargers proved to be a challenging conference rival for Southland as they are 1-1 against each other this season, both winning on their respective home floor.

Now, they face each other in a neutral territory with Southland being the favorite to win as the No. 3 seed. However, Washington knows the Chargers can still cause some trouble for them on Monday.

“Delta C-7 has a really talented player, C.J. Wallace,” Washington said. “We know their team is down with some injuries right now, so we are going to put our primary focus on stopping Wallace, who is one of the best players in our conference.”

For Russom and the Hornets, their Class 2 District 1 seeding placed them against the No.2 seeded Hayti Indians.

The Indians are 14-4 this season and 1-0 against Holcomb. Even still, Russom welcomes this challenge with pride.

“I know they are going to be a really tough opponent,” Russom said. “But we are going to all play our game and give it our best effort and see what we can do with that.”