LIBERAL, Mo. — Thomas Jefferson fell 71-47 to Galena, Kansas, in the Tony Dubray Classic championship game on Saturday.
The Bulldogs took all of the momentum early, outscoring the Cavaliers 28-9 in the first quarter on the way to a 26-point lead by the intermission. Thomas Jefferson cut the lead to 16 by the start of the fourth before Galena pushed the lead back out down the stretch.
Thomas Jefferson falls to 12-2 on the season.
Dhruv Gheewala led Thomas Jefferson with 18 points, while Caden Myers added 11. Drew Goodhope scored eight, while Jay Ball finished with six. Gheewala and Myers were both named to the all-tournament team.
Tyler Little led Galena with a game-high 26 points, while Brett Sarwinski added 21 points. Kobe McGlothlin finished in double figures with 10.
Thomas Jefferson hosts Jasper on Tuesday.
CARTHAGE BOYS WIN SECOND STRAIGHT
CHANUTE, Kan. — The Carthage Tigers ended the 49th Ralph Miller Classic on a positive note.
Carthage’s boys defeated Life Prep 53-46 on Saturday at Chanute High School.
The Tigers got off to a great start, leading 13-5.
By the break, Carthage was up 28-23. The third period was even, 13-13, and the Tigers were clinging to a 41-36 lead heading into the fourth quarter.
Carthage outscored Life Prep 12-10 in the final period to secure a second straight win at the event.
Joel Pugh was Carthage’s leading scorer with 20 points. A junior guard, Pugh made five 3-pointers and was named to the all-tournament team.
Max Templeman added 12 points for the Tigers. Clay Kinder and Silas Templeman contributed six points apiece, while Justin Ray had five and Caden Kabance added four.
Carthage hosts Hillcrest on Tuesday night.
COUGARS TAKE THIRD AT LANCER CLASSIC, WARRIORS FALL IN FIFTH-PLACE GAME
CHEROKEE, Kan. — College Heights Christian claimed third-place honors at the Lancer Classic with a 49-44 win over Columbus.
Miller Long led the Cougars with 13 points, while Ethan Adel added 11 and Ethan Meeks had 10.
College Heights, now 9-7, plays at Verona on Tuesday.
Southeast defeated McAuley Catholic 70-47 in the fifth-place game.
Daniel Wagner scored 16 points for McAuley, while Matthew Dohmen added 13 and Thomas Black had 10.
The Lancers used a 24-10 second quarter to take control. Cade Burdette scored 26 points for Southeast.
LEBANON, Mo. — Rogersville started fast and finished even stronger in an 83-59 win over Joplin in the Heritage Bank of the Ozarks Hall of Fame Classic championship game on Saturday.
The Wildcats (12-4) scored the game’s first eight points and built a 14-point lead by the end of the opening period. The Eagles (10-5), which took second place in the three-day tournament with wins over Gateway City Elite and Lebanon, were forced to whittle away from an early hole, trimming the deficit to one possession in the third quarter and again in the fourth before Rogersville pulled away down the stretch with an insurmountable closing run.
“They are good,” Joplin coach Jeff Hafer said. “They beat us up inside. Points in the paint are an issue for us that we are continually trying to address. We didn’t have a lot of time to prep for them, and they had one day of prep for us. … From a coaching standpoint, that falls on me making sure I’m helping our kids.
“Our kids are fighting. We showed some heart, and again, there are a lot of different guys playing. We are trying to figure out who is going to fill out those roles and those gaps for us. We are close, but we have a ways to go.”
Jonathan Dunn, a 6-foot-7 senior and Western Illinois commit, had his way on the court in the early moments, scoring the first six points of the game — including a forceful dunk — and eight of the Wildcats’ first 10 points to stake Rogersville out to a 10-3 lead.
“If you let an athletic individual get going, it motivates,” Hafer said of the Wildcats’ start. “You make them comfortable and my thought is, ‘Guys, just be aggressive.’ We didn’t talk and we gave them some really easy ones.”
Dunn added a pair of 3-pointers to finish with 14 points in the first quarter, while helping the Wildcats establish a 25-11 advantage heading into the second period.
Joplin knocked down the first two shots of the second period to cut it to nine, with both teams trading back and forth until the Eagles went into the intermission trailing by nine, 35-26.
Joplin began to find its footing in the third quarter, slowly chipping away at the lead. After a score inside in transition by Micah Bruggeman and a 3-pointer by All Wright, the Eagles cut the lead to five with 3:30 on the clock.
“We were a little tentative for whatever reason coming out, but we fought back and got it to nine by half,” Hafer said. “We talked at halftime about playing so passively, and we missed so many bunnies. … We actually started really poorly in the third quarter and then we got going, sharing the basketball. We started pressing on defense and caused some turnovers.”
Joplin eventually cut the lead all the way down to one possession when Dominick Simmons buried back-to-back 3-balls to make the score 49-46 with a minute to play in the third quarter.
Rogersville pushed the lead back to seven early, 57-50, thanks to a pair baskets from Dunn out of the final break, the second of which was turned into a three-point play.
All Wright knocked down a baseline jumper and scored on the drive at the 6:15 mark to once again cut the Wildcats’ lead to one possession, 57-54.
Rogersville responded with a bucket from Dunn and a three-point play from Zach Bergmann to push the lead to eight before All Wright connected for a mid-range jumper near the five minute mark to make the score 62-56.
The Wildcats followed with the knockout blow, scoring 17 unanswered points to snuff out any comeback attempt while ultimately closing the game on a 22-3 run since the Eagles cut the lead to three earlier in the period.
“I was pleased with how we fought back,” Hafer said. “We spotted them, then we fought back. We spotted them again in the third quarter and we fought back again. … We had our opportunities. It got away in the fourth quarter, but I felt like that was a game we could win. They are a very good team, and they did what they do better than what we do today.”
SCORING LEADERS
Dunn finished with a game-high 30 points, while Bergmann closed with 18. Kanon Gipson finished right behind with 17 to give Rogersville three players in double figures.
All Wright led Joplin with 21 points, while Simmons finished with 14. Always Wright closed with 11 points, with Bruggeman chipping in with six.
“I put Micah in during the first half and he made a huge difference for us,” Hafer said. “Micah hasn’t gotten very many minutes, but he just brought a presence to the middle of their zone that took attention away from our shooters. He was able to give us some really good minutes, so I was proud of him.”
UP NEXT
Joplin is at Kickapoo for a 7:30 p.m. tip on Tuesday.
FRONTENAC, Kan. — With his team trailing by two, and with little time left on the clock, Logan Applegate had planned on creating off the dribble.
Instead, and with the game’s outcome hanging in the balance, the Nevada senior guard pulled up from long range.
For Applegate and the Tigers, that split-second decision proved to be a good one.
Applegate buried a game-winning 3-pointer with 1.2 seconds left to lift Nevada to a thrilling 51-50 come-from-behind victory over Webb City on Saturday in the championship game of the Freeman Sports Medicine Mid-Season Shoot-Out at Frontenac High School.
“This is a huge win for us,” Applegate said. “This is the one we wanted. We had Webb City circled on our calendar, so this is definitely a big win and we’re super happy.”
The game was deadlocked at 48 when Webb City senior guard Nickhai Howard hit a mid-range jumper near the foul line with 7.8 seconds remaining to give the Cardinals a two-point cushion.
After a timeout, the Tigers pushed the ball up the floor and Applegate found the ball in his hands near halfcourt with time running out.
The closely-guarded Applegate took a couple of dribbles and then rose up from beyond the arc on the right wing—and his shot went in.
“The plan was for me to get the ball on the move and then for me to create, like a fastbreak,” Applegate said. “Their defense played back, so thank God for some space and my teammates got me the ball. I always try to elevate on my shots so there’s not a hand in my face as much. The shot felt good.”
“They swarmed him, but he just rose up and hit it,” Nevada coach Shaun Gray said. “He made a heck of a shot and he made several big shots in the fourth quarter. Logan put us on his shoulders. That was clutch by him. Our guys executed at the end.”
Webb City coach Jason Horn gave the Tigers and their sharp-shooter credit after what was a disappointing setback for his Cardinals.
“Good players make plays,” Horn said, noting Applegate’s shot was well-guarded. “He made a play. He’s really talented. He showed he’s one of the better guards in the area.”
After Applegate’s trey splashed home, and following a timeout, Webb City attempted a full-court pass, but it was intercepted by Nevada’s Ben Hines and time expired.
Applegate’s shot capped a nice comeback for the Tigers.
The Cardinals held a 12-point lead with two minutes left in the third period, but Nevada outscored Webb City 19-9 in the final frame.
“We weren’t very good offensively today,” Horn said. “We didn’t shoot the ball very well. We gave them chances and they hung around. You have to give Nevada credit. Their kids stayed mentally tough. We had our chances to stretch the lead several times and we didn’t do it. You can’t let a good team hang around like that.”
NAMES & NUMBERS
Applegate scored a game-high 25 points, hitting 9-of-17 shots, including four treys. Applegate has offers from Texas State and Southern Illinois-Edwardsville and may attend a prep school next year before making his college decision, Gray noted.
Senior guard Logan McNeley added 11 points and six rebounds for the Tigers, who made 19-of-34 field goal attempts (56 percent).
Webb City wasn’t able to overcome a poor shooting night, as the Cardinals shot 30 percent from the floor (16-of-53), including 3-of-19 from beyond the arc.
Senior guard Nickhai Howard had a double-double for the Cardinals with 18 points and 10 rebounds. Fellow senior Mekhi Garrard added 13 points and seven boards, while classmate Trenton Hayes had nine points.
The Cardinals out-rebounded the Tigers 31-20.
GAME RECAP
Garrard nailed his second trey of the opening period and Alex Martin scored inside, giving Webb City an 11-7 lead.
But Applegate buried a 3-pointer, cutting his team’s deficit to one at the end of the first quarter at 11-10.
The Cardinals went up five when Cohl Vaden and Hayes both scored on putbacks inside, but the Tigers stayed within striking distance for the rest of the second quarter. Two hoops from Evan Rea and a layup from Logan McNeley trimmed Webb City’s lead to one.
Howard hit a pull-up jumper at the conclusion of the first half, giving the Cardinals a 26-23 advantage at the break.
Webb City went up 12 with two minutes remaining in the third period after a putback from Hayes.
The Tigers answered with five straight points, but Howard drained a fall away jumper at the buzzer to give Webb a 41-32 lead heading into the fourth period.
Nevada scored the first eight points of the fourth quarter and the game was close the rest of the way.
Before his game-winner, Applegate drained two other treys in the fourth period.
Webb City’s Garrard and Hayes and Nevada’s Hines all hit clutch free throws late in the game, tying the score at 48.
That’s when the versatile Howard gave the Cardinals the lead, only to see Applegate connect on his cold-blooded trey moments later.
“This win is huge for these guys,” Gray said. “We wanted them to get a signature win and a tournament championship. Our seniors have poured their heart and soul into the program. The twins (Logan and Lane McNeley) grew up with their dad (John) as the high school’s basketball coach. For our seniors, their high school basketball program means a lot to them. I’m just really proud of the effort all these guys gave today.”
GAME NOTES
Nevada improved to 11-5, while Webb City dropped to 11-3. The Cardinals, who are ranked fourth in Class 5, had beaten the Tigers 65-55 at the Kaminsky Classic on Jan. 7.
The Cardinals and Tigers are district opponents, so there’s a chance they’ll meet again when the postseason arrives. It’s Nevada’s third straight Frontenac tourney championship. Nevada hosts Carthage next Friday.
A BUSY WEEK FOR WEBB CITY
Webb City has a busy week ahead. The Cardinals travel to Harrisonville on Tuesday before beginning play at the Nixa Tournament on Wednesday.
“We have four games next week,” Horn said. “We have to get on to the next one. We’ll work on some things in practice on Monday and hopefully we’ll keep getting better.”
The Nevada Tigers pose after winning the Freeman Sports Medicine Mid-Season Shoot-Out at Frontenac High School.
