McAuley Catholic took command in the middle quarters on the way to a home win over Sheldon on Tuesday.
The Warriors (3-9) took a one-point lead into the second quarter before outscoring the Panthers 20-12 in the second period to build a nine-point advantage by the intermission. McAuley pulled away in the third quarter after pushing the lead to more than 20 by the start of the fourth.
“This was a solid win for us against a district opponent,” McAuley coach Tony Witt said. “Hopefully we can gain some momentum from this one as we enter the heart of the season.”
Kable Reichardt led McAuley with 13 points, while Michael Parrigon and Noah Black each finished with 12 in the win. Jacob Bracich finished with 10 to give the Warriors four players in double figures.
Sheldon was led in scoring by Aiden Ellfritts, who finished with a game-high 17 points.
McAuley opens conference play with a road game against Verona.
REPUBLIC BOYS 63, NEOSHO 50
Republic built a double-digit lead by the end of the first quarter and held on for a Central Ozark Conference win over Neosho on Tuesday.
Republic took the momentum early after jumping out to a 21-10 lead by the end of the first eight minutes of action. The Wildcats cut the lead to two by the intermission and trailed by five to start the fourth before the Tigers outscored Neosho 20-13 down the stretch, led by Gunner Ellison’s 10 fourth-quarter points.
Ellison finished with 17, while Ahlante Askew had 22 points for Republic. Devon James McMillin had eight.
K’dyn Waters had 11 to lead Neosho (10-5), while Kael Smith and Isaiah Green each had nine. Brock Franklin had eight and Carter Fenske finished with seven.
The last time the Cardinals were on the floor, they suffered a tightly-contested loss to Joplin in the Kaminsky Classic championship game on Saturday. Webb City righted that wrong in just three days time with a 60-57 overtime win over the Eagles on Tuesday to kick off the Central Ozark Conference portion of the schedule.
“We were disappointed that we weren’t able to repeat as Kaminsky Classic champions, but we felt like we lost the game on Saturday,” Webb City coach Jason Horn said. “We controlled our own destiny and didn’t capitalize. We came in today and we were a little tight early, but we loosened up, got into the flow and started doing some things we are good at. I told the guys, ‘At the end of the day, just relax and execute and we are going to be fine. You are going to make the right play. If you win, awesome. If you lose, it’s a basketball game and we will get better tomorrow in practice.’ They loosened up and did what they needed to do.”
Webb City’s Kaden Turner raises up for a 3-pointer in the Cardinals’ overtime win over Joplin on Tuesday. Photo by Shawn Fowler.
The game played much like you would expect between two quality programs in the same conference that just played each other. There were 11 ties and 19 lead changes, and the largest lead at any point was five points, which was held by Webb City late in the third quarter. Free-throw shooting played a large role in the outcome as well. During the last minute of the fourth quarter through the overtime period, Joplin was 4-of-9 shooting from the charity stripe while Webb City converted at an 8-for-10 rate at the foul line over the same stretch of play.
“It’s huge,” Horn said when asked about the importance of free-throw shooting. “Going back to last Saturday (in the championship game), we missed some free throws that could have changed the game early on. We were able to capitalize (today) and make them down the stretch. We caught a break that they missed a few. You have to capitalize on free points when they are giving them to you.”
The win gives Webb City a 9-3 overall record and 1-0 start to conference play, while Joplin falls to 10-2, 0-1 COC.
“In the COC, you can’t take any game off or any game for granted,” Horn said. “It’s nice to start 1-0, but we can only enjoy this for a little bit because we have to get ready for Ozark. There are no easy nights.”
“I thought it was two really good teams going at it,” Joplin coach Bronson Schaake said. “It was back and forth. We had our chances at the end of regulation and in overtime. Those little things that you don’t cash in on will come back and get you against good times. But, I thought I saw some other guys step up when we needed it and be role players, which was good. We will build on this.”
DOWN THE STRETCH
After a third quarter that saw six lead changes and both teams tied at 40, the lead never reached more than four points for either Webb City or Joplin.
The Cardinals took the first momentum swing of the fourth after Kaden Turner grabbed an offensive rebound for a putback and Dante Washington scored on the drive to give Webb City a 46-42 lead.
Joplin’s Always Wright drives to the basket against Webb City’s Max Higginbotham on Tuesday. Photo by Shawn Fowler.
The Eagles rallied to take a four-point lead of their own with less than a minute left in regulation with an 8-0 run, the largest of the game by any team in the game. Always Wright and Bruce Wilbert buried 3-pointers off the inbounds pass on consecutive possessions to get the lead back for Joplin before Wright was perfect on two free throws to make the score 52-48 with 51 seconds to play.
Webb City’s Cohl Vaden brought the Cardinals to within one of the lead after driving for a bucket, drawing contact and sinking the and-1 free throw with 26.9 ticks left to make the score 52-51. After a Joplin missed free throw on the front end of a one-and-one, Trey Roets drew contact under the basket before sinking two free throws with 8.1 seconds left to give Webb City a 53-52 lead.
Always Wright drew a foul in the backcourt with 6.1 seconds, making the first free throw and missing the second to send the game into overtime tied at 53-53.
LT Atherton made one of two free throws early in the overtime period to give Joplin a one-point lead, but Webb City scored the next five points on two charities by Turner before Roets came up with a momentum-turning three-point play on a bucket inside with 1:57 left to put Webb City up 58-54.
Webb City’s Trey Roets draws a foul before making two free throws late in the fourth quarter in the Cardinals’ Central Ozark Conference win over Joplin. Photo by Shawn Fowler.
“Trey puts a lot of time in on his own,” Horn said. “There are a lot of nights I am opening the gym for him and letting him get extra work in. That work is paying off. He hit some big 3s tonight. He is a kid who can play with his back to the basket, but what makes him versatile is when we put him in that pinch-post area around the top of the key—if you don’t guard him, he can make shots. He was big on the free-throw line late and he was strong around the basket. He made some great moves, had some big blocks and some big rebounds. He did a good job patrolling.”
Joplin was empty on two chances at the stripe on the next possession, but Always Wright knocked down a 3-pointer from the wing with 1:04 to play to bring the Eagles within one of the lead, 58-57.
Those were the last points for Joplin, while Webb City pushed the lead to 60-57 after making two of its four free throws in the final minute of play to seal the conference-opening win.
“I thought we showed a lot of mental toughness,” Horn said. “The ball didn’t bounce our way there a couple times in the last couple of minutes and I thought we made some mistakes that were uncharacteristic of us, but we showed a lot of resolve. We bounced back and made winning plays there at the end when we needed to—guys hitting big free throws with a lot of pressure on them—and you have to give (Joplin) a lot of credit because they played hard. … Offensively, we were solid there (at the end of regulation) and through overtime. We got a couple of good looks and our guys capitalized on it.”
Joplin’s Whit Hafer records a block during the Eagles’ conference loss to Webb City on Tuesday. Photo by Shawn Fowler.
STAT LEADERS
Turner led Webb City with 24 points and 10 rebounds to close with a double-double. Roets had three 3-pointers on the way to 17 points and nine rebounds to go along with a game-high four blocks, while Vaden finished with 13 points and three assists.
Always Wright led Joplin with 16 points, four rebounds, two assists and two blocks, while All Wright had15 points and seven rebounds with one block. Terrance Gibson had seven points, nine rebounds, two blocks and two steals, with Atherton finishing with six points and four rebounds.
UP NEXT
Webb City continues conference play with the Cardinals hosting Ozark on Friday.
The McAuley Catholic girls basketball team rolled from the start en route to a dominating 58-12 win over Sheldon on Tuesday.
“The girls played really well tonight,” McAuley coach Mike Howard said. “We were able to create several offensive opportunities from our defensive pressure and capitalized on that. They played confidently and showed great teamwork. I’m very proud of our effort tonight.”
The Warriors led 15-4 at the end of the first quarter and then outscord the visitors 18-0 in a lopsided second period.
Up 33-4 at halftime, the hosts won the third period 23-7 for a commanding 56-11 advantage.
Kayleigh Teeter scored 22 points to lead McAuley, while Kennedy DeRuy added 19 points. DeRuy made three treys, while Teeter hit two.
Avery Eminger scored nine points for the Warriors, while Kloee Williamson chipped in five points.
The Warriors are now 10-2 on the season. McAuley is at Verona on Friday.
THOMAS JEFFERSON 46, SOUTHWEST 41
The Cavaliers raced out to a 17-9 lead by the end of the first quarter.
Thomas Jefferson never gave up its lead, as the Cavs were up 24-18 at halftime and 37-29 at the end of the third period.
Southwest outscored TJ 12-9 in the fourth quarter, but it wasn’t enough.
Gabbi Hiebert scored 12 points and made three 3-pointers to lead Thomas Jefferson (2-6), while Alivia Beard added 12 points.
Also for the Cavaliers, Sarah Mueller scored eight points and Nico Carlson contributed six.
Anna Church scored 17 points for Southwest (2-10).
The Cavaliers host Wheaton at 5:30 on Thursday night.
NEVADA 57, LAMAR 31
NEVADA, Mo. — Nevada improved its record to 10-3 with a convincing win.
Three players scored in double figures for Nevada, as Clara Swearingen led the way with 20 points, while Maddy Majors had 14 and Abbey Heathman contributed 10. Swearingen made four 3-pointers.
Alyssa Powell scored eight points to lead Lamar (5-7), while Marcy Miller added six and Josey Adams had five.
In a clash between Tigers, Nevada led 15-5 by the end of the first quarter. Nevada’s lead was 45-21 at the end of the third period.
Nevada is at Seneca next Tuesday, while Lamar is at Cassville on Thursday.
CARTHAGE, Mo. — Carl Junction scored 16 of the first 19 points of the fourth quarter and then held on late for a hard-fought 53-48 victory over Carthage on Tuesday night in the Central Ozark Conference opener for both teams.
“That’s a great win,” Carl Junction coach Brad Shorter said. “Any win in the COC is good. And Carthage is really good. I was impressed with how hard they played. They’ve got some quick kids and they push the ball up the floor well. Coach (Scott) Moore is doing a really good job with them. So it’s a great win for us for sure.”
The back and forth clash was deadlocked at 32 at the end of the third quarter before the Bulldogs pulled away with a game-changing surge to start the fourth period.
“For us, it wasn’t so much their offensive spurt, but we just missed some shots,” Carthage’s Moore said. “We were getting the shots we wanted. Yeah, we had a turnover or two, but we missed some runners that were just short and we missed some 3s that rattled out. This game would have been an entirely different result if we didn’t have that lull to start the fourth quarter and the lull to start the second quarter. In the second quarter, we dug ourselves out. In the fourth quarter, we couldn’t overcome that lull.”
Ranked fifth in Class 5 by the Missouri Basketball Coaches Association, Carl Junction hiked its record to 11-3 and 1-0 in the COC.
Junior guard Destiny Buerge poured in a game-high 29 points with a trio of 3-pointers. Buerge scored 15 of CJ’s 21 first-half points and then added 14 after the break.
Sophomore forward Kylie Scott scored 13 points for the Bulldogs, while junior guard Klohe Burk added seven.
Junior guard Kianna Yates scored 20 points and hit four treys to lead Carthage, while freshman guard Lauren Choate contributed 15 points with three 3-pointers.
“That’s the second game in a row where she’s shot the ball well,” Moore said of Choate. “She’s a kid that has that ability. We expect her to knock down four or five 3s every night for us.”
Freshman guard Maggie Boyd added six points on a pair of 3-pointers for the Tigers, who fell to 6-8 overall and 0-1 in the COC.
The conference opener for both teams was deadlocked at 10 at the conclusion of the first quarter.
Five straight points from Buerge gave the Bulldogs a 17-12 lead, but the Tigers responded with a 10-1 run to go up 22-18.
During the spurt, Choate scored eight points on two corner treys and a hoop in the lane, while Sophie Shannon added a bucket in the paint.
Buerge buried a 3-pointer from the left wing to cut CJ’s deficit to one at halftime, 22-21.
Neither team was able to separate in the third quarter and the game was tied at 32.
The game-changing surge arrived for the visitors as the fourth quarter began. The Bulldogs began the fourth period on a 16-3 run to go up 48-35.
Scott, Buerge and Dezi Williams all contributed field goals before Williams added a free throw to complete a three-point play. Next, Burk hit a 3-pointer from the corner before Buerge scored three hoops in transition.
“We made a few adjustments defensively that really helped us,” Shorter said of the spurt. “We settled in defensively and did a better job of not turning our backs to shooters. That helped. We have a tendency to be over-aggressive when the ball goes into the paint. And some of our guards and forwards turn their backs to shooters and leave them open. Offensively, we had some kids, especially Destiny and Kylie, buckle down and just go get buckets. And I thought our kids did a great job of rebounding and we got some second chances.”
Carthage was plagued by empty possessions early in the fourth period.
Suddenly down double figures, the Tigers scored eight unanswered points to pull within five. Moore noted he was pleased his team didn’t quit when it got down double-digits.
“I’m so proud of our girls for always doing that,” Moore said. “They do it themselves. I’ll call a timeout and tell them to pick up the intensity and they go do it. I’m really proud of them for not quitting at the end and for making a run. We forced Carl Junction to call some timeouts. That run gave us a chance to be in the ballgame at the end.”
Carl Junction put the game away when Scott converted a putback and then made one free throw to give her squad some separation at 51-43 with 37 seconds left.
“It was a great game and we were right there with them,” Moore noted. “I think Carl Junction will finish in the top half of the conference. And after tonight, I feel like we should finish in the top half. That’s one of our goals this year.”
WHAT’S NEXT?
Both teams are at home on Friday, as Carl Junction hosts Republic and Carthage entertains Nixa.
CARTHAGE, Mo. — Carthage scored the game’s first 10 points and never looked back on the way to a dominant 63-29 win over Carl Junction on Tuesday night in a Central Ozark Conference boys basketball clash.
“I challenged our guys tonight,” Tigers coach Nathan Morris said. “We haven’t had a lot of really hot starts. I told them it’s about time we go out and show everybody what we can do early on. We were confident in the shots we took and the plays we ran. For our guys to jump out like that, 10-0, it was big for us and it set the tone for the rest of the game.”
Now receiving votes in the MBCA’s Class 6 poll, Carthage improved to 11-2 and 1-1 in the COC with a lopsided victory.
The usual suspects led the Tigers, as guards Max Templeman, Joel Pugh and Justin Ray combined to score 47 points.
Templeman scored 19 points, Pugh had 16 with four 3-pointers and Ray added 12 points.
Also for the Tigers, Britt Coy scored five points, while Clay Kinder and Tyler Willis contributed four points apiece.
Morris noted his guard trio once again stood out.
“Max got out in transition quite a bit, Joel hit four 3s and I thought some of our other guys really stepped up,” Morris said. “They were important for us, especially when we got kind of laid back in the second quarter. We didn’t finish the second quarter the way we should have. But we came back out and imposed our will in the third quarter.”
Carl Junction fell to 3-11 and 0-1 in conference action.
Jett Hocut scored eight points for the Bulldogs, while Ayden Bard, Josh Cory, Aidan Beachner and Lucas Vanlanduit all added four points apiece.
After racing out to a 10-0 lead, the Tigers held a 19-6 advantage at the end of the first quarter.
A trey from Ray made it 25-6 early in the second period. By intermission, Carthage’s lead was 33-15.
Carthage outscored Carthage 18-6 in the third quarter for a comfy 51-21 lead.
The game’s final outcome was never in doubt in the fourth period.
Morris noted his squad is off to a stellar start to the 2021-22 campaign.
“We’re 11-2 and now 1-1 in the COC,” Morris said. “We’re going to keep climbing. We’re happy for these kids. I hope we get some people out here to support these guys.”
WHAT’S NEXT?
Both teams are back in action on Friday night, as Carl Junction hosts Republic and Carthage travels to Hillcrest on Friday.
