ROLLA --- This should be no surprise.
He can play basketball, too.
He is Dorial Green-Beckham. He is DGB.
Ring a bell? Thought so.
He is good.
DGB was the No. 1 football recruit in the nation, at any position, and he signed last month to lend his talents to the Missouri Tigers for the next four years. Or three. Perhaps even two. Or one.
The 6-6 Springfield Hillcrest senior --- a wide receiver who had a record-shattering career with the Hornets --- is a man amongst boys on the basketball court, as well.
Mere mortal high school kids don't stand much of a chance.
Playing at half-speed most of the time, DGB --- we'll call him D, for short, in honor of this effort --- scored 20 points and grabbed eight rebounds as Hillcrest ousted the Helias Crusaders 46-34 in the Class 4 quarterfinals Saturday.
When he went full throttle, D could do what he wanted, when he wanted, against whoever he wanted. Was that the case the entire season?
"Most of the time," said D, who's scored over 2,000 points in his career, "but I also look to my teammates to give them opportunities."
If Helias, which ends the season at 20-9, had written a perfect script to start the game, this wasn't it.
Call this the anti-script --- D hit a 3-pointer and had a slam dunk in the opening 79 seconds to give the Hornets (25-5) a 5-0 lead.
Timeout, Helias.
"They started the game with a 3 and a dunk by Dorial, and that's just what you don't want," Helias coach Josh Buffington said. "You don't want to give a player with that kind of talent that kind of confidence, early.
"He's a really good player and they have some good pieces around him. Their athleticism was a bit too much for us.
"We just couldn't catch up."
Indeed. In the wire-to-wire win, the Hornets led 9-4 after one quarter and 25-9 at the break.
"That's one thing we work on a lot ... coming out at the start of the game and getting to it," said D, who tallied 13 of his points in the first half.
The Crusaders had more turnovers (10) than points in the first two quarters.
"We played on our heels in the first half," Buffington said.
Depending on what D does in college and perhaps beyond, Helias freshman Hale Hentges may have had a couple of "tell-my-grandkids" moments in the third quarter, as Helias cut the lead to 25-14.
First, Hentges went through D on his way to a three-point play, before canning a short jumper over the top of D.
"I thought our guys battled from the opening tip to the final buzzer," Buffington said. "They didn't want to lose, they didn't make mistakes on purpose, (the Hornets) just forced us into some things because of their athleticism."
The Crusaders would get no closer than 11 in the second half. Any comeback attempt was further strained by the Hornets holding onto the ball for long, long possessions.
They took the air out of the ball, the gym and Helias' season.
"You expect that in a game of this magnitude, a coach sitting on it when he typically doesn't, just because he wants his team to advance," Buffington said.
The Hornets advance to the semifinals at 6:40 p.m. Friday at Mizzou Arena ... just a short distance from D's playing field this fall.
And this fall, we'll all be rooting for DGB who will --- without question --- go full-throttle as the Tigers enter the SEC.
"It's been real calm, lately, not having football around for a while," he said. "After I signed that day, I just put everything behind me and came out here to help my teammates win a state title."
Josh Smith led Helias with 12 points on four 3-pointers.
"We've come such a long way," Buffington said. "They gave it everything they had and that's all we ask of them. And they've done it every single day for us, through thick and thin.
"I don't know if I've ever been more proud of a group than this one."
IIIII
The basketball season lasts just over three months.
The season for the Helias girls was decided in just over three minutes.
Bre' Zanders scored on a follow-shot with 5:11 left in the third quarter to give the Lady Crusaders a 23-18 lead in the Class 4 quarterfinal bout against the Republic Lady Tigers.
Steady as she goes.
But then, the ship was sunk.
The Lady Tigers, keyed by a pair of 3-pointers by Alice Heinzler, went on a 10-0 surge to take a 28-23 lead with less than two minutes left in the third on their way to a 46-37 win Saturday.
"We knew they had a run in them; we knew we had to weather the storm," Helias coach Doug Light said. "We just had some breakdowns.
"They came out hard and executed some things, and we didn't. I feel really bad for our kids, because they wanted this really bad."
Helias (21-8) led 10-8 after one quarter and 19-13 at the half. Then came the third-quarter run by Republic (21-8), which was fueled by a huge helping hand from the Lady Crusaders --- when they had more turnovers than a bakery.
Was it good defense or poor execution?
"Both," Light said.
Helias senior Olivia Hackmann was unstoppable in the first half, scoring 13 points to match Repbulic's total. But she went scoreless in the second half.
"They made an effort to take Olivia out of the game," Light said, "but Taylor (Hagenoff) stepped up."
To be sure --- Hagenhoff, a junior, scored 14 of her 16 points after the break to keep Helias in it, including four straight points to start the fourth quarter to give Helias a 31-30 lead.
"We kind of overcame what happened in the third quarter," Light said. "But then we had the fourth quarter and those breakdowns."
Helias was within 38-37 after a follow-shot by Krista Haslag with 3:14 left, before Republic finished the game with an 8-0 flurry.
That burst, coupled with the one in the third quarter, was the difference.
"I've been in this situation before and it's tough, because this was their dream," Light said. "But I love these kids, I couldn't be prouder of them."
After stumbling out of the gate just over three months ago, to end up in the quarterfinals is quite an accomplishment.
"We started out 2-4 and we had a lot of adverse things happen to us, and we overcame that," Light said. "A great season.
"This was just one thing, in the end, that we couldn't overcome."
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