Kingston Money spent this season coming off the bench for one of the best high school basketball teams in the country. SI.com just named him Missouri's Boys Basketball Sixth Man of the Year.

The 6-foot-3 junior guard at Principia School averaged 8.8 points, 3.5 rebounds, and 2.0 steals per game in a reserve role for the Panthers, who rolled to their second straight Class 3 state championship with a 98-34 win over Miller Career Academy at Mizzou Arena. Principia, which competes in the Metro League, finished 25-2 in the regular season and earned a No. 9 national ranking from The Sporting News.

Money earned Metro League all-conference and all-state honors despite never cracking the starting lineup on a roster loaded with all-state seniors.

"He's very deserving of his award," Principia head coach Jay Blossom told West Newsmagazine. "First off, you're talking a kid who could start on any other high school roster. He played starter minutes and he accepted that. He bought in. I'm happy for him to be recognized."

That loaded roster is about to thin out. Gatorade Missouri Player of the Year Quentin Coleman, 1,500-point scorer Lincoln Goodwin, and sharpshooter Jaedyn Jones all graduate this spring. Money, a rising senior, is positioned to lead a program chasing a three-peat.

Blossom, a St. Louis Sports Hall of Fame inductee who landed on the Naismith Coach of the Year watch list this season, will have his new centerpiece already broken in.