Caleb Estes leads Oak Park past Vashon in thrilling overtime win in Missouri basketball showdown
COLUMBIA, MISSOURI – Caleb Estes couldn’t stop smiling.
The Oak Park junior guard just hit one of the biggest shots in one of the biggest games of his life, earned the game’s most valuable player award and signed autographs for kids and posed for photos as he walked off the court.
“I can’t even explain how I feel,” Estes said. “I’m just so grateful and happy to be able to hoop with my teammates, grateful to God. It’s just a blessing to be here.”
Estes knocked down a 3-pointer with 2 seconds left in regulation on Saturday to send the game into overtime and finished with a game-high 27 points as Oak Park pulled out a thrilling 77-72 overtime win against perennial powerhouse Vashon at the Norm Stewart Classic at Mizzou Arena.
“I think this game puts a statement that we are the best team in the state and it shouldn’t be up for debate anymore,” Estes said. “We’re here. We’re fighting for everybody who wants that No. 1 spot. Sherron Collins, that was a blessing for him to come over to Oak Park. That helped us as a team a lot.”
Collins, a former Kansas University standout, is in his first year as the head coach of the Northmen and has Oak Park off to a 4-0 start after a 26-2 campaign a year ago – with both losses coming against Missouri Class 6 champion Staley.
Now Collins and the Northmen have a signature win against Vashon (4-2), which had won the past three Class 4 championships – the Class 4 final four was canceled due to COVID-19 in 2020 – and the Class 3 title in 2019.
“It means a lot,” Collins said. “That’s a good team, for sure. Three-time defending state champs. We just showed that we can play with them, we’re one of the best teams for sure and we think we are. We carry ourselves like that and we work our tails off in practice. … We’re going to be here, we’re going to be here playing with the big dogs, and that’s what we expect.”
Besides Estes’ season-high 27 points – which came on seven-of-11 shooting, with three 3-pointers, and 10 free throws on 10 attempts – the Northmen got 16 points apiece from junior guards Corbin Allen and Josh Kori and 10 from sophomore guard Adam Tanner.
Collins, who scored 1,888 points during his four years with the Jayhawks (2006-10), already had some fond memories of playing against the University of Missouri in the same building.
One of them was scoring 25 points and grabbing five rebounds at Mizzou Arena as a junior. Another was seeing teammate Julian Wright’s emphatic highlight-worthy dunk on Kalen Grimes.
Estes added another great memory for Collins, who was doused with water by his players as he entered the locker room.
The 6-foot-3 junior caught a pass in the final seconds of regulation with his team trailing by three points.
“To be honest, I just said, I’m not seeing anybody in front of me – just let it rip,” Estes said. “Shot it. All net. Surreal feeling.”
Collins said Estes hits those kinds of shots frequently in practice.
“He’s one of those shot takers,” the coach said, “that you stand up like ‘no, Caleb,’ and then it goes in and you’re like, ‘yes, Caleb.’ We knew he was gonna shoot it and we were going to live with it.”
The Northmen will take it.
“He lives for these games,” Collins said. “He lives for these big-time moments. He calls himself a dawg and he’s a dawg. He thrives in these moments. For me it’s rewarding because I know how it feels, I know about these moments, and to see him excel and want to be that guy, he comes in and says he wants it and he made that shot. Tip my hat off to him. He’s a great guy. He’s a great player.”
Oak Park - Vashon boys basketball
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- Nate Latsch | latsch@scorebooklive.com | @SBLiveMiz
