Day: December 10, 2022

Playing their first game without senior leading scorer Brynn Driver, the Joplin Eagles ran into a freight train known as the Farmington (Arkansas) Cardinals in the semifinals of the 26th annual Freeman Lady Eagle Classic on Friday night inside Kaminsky Gymnasium.

Farmington led 21-2 after one quarter and scored the first 21 points of the game, 46-5 at halftime, and 66-11 after three quarters on the way to a commanding 68-21 win over Joplin.

Joplin managed to outscore Farmington 10-2 in the fourth.

Driver went down with a knee injury late in the first half Ton hursday of Joplin’s 45-39 quarterfinal win against Leavenworth (Kansas).

“I’ve tried to stay positive all year with them,” Joplin coach Brad Cox said. “I understand it’s been a struggle for Joplin girls basketball teams for many, many years, but our goal this year like I told people before is to build a foundation. That foundation has to be built upon some positivity, and it has to be built on girls wanting to play this game. They’re already stressed out by playing a really, really good Farmington team … what good is it for me to give them even more stress?

“This is our first game back with missing Brynn. We were out of sync, which I knew was going to be the case, but we’re going to get better. Brynn was over there coaching them up. She’s still continuing to be that leader for us. Like I told the girls, it couldn’t have happened at a worse time, being right in the middle of a tournament with no practice days.

“I just reminded them we don’t play to the scoreboard. We play to our ability. I felt like second half, we came out and did that. We went from five points to 21. Three hundred percent more.”

Bailey Ledford led Joplin with six points, Riley Kelly had four, Isabella Yust added three, and Ashley Phillips, Maria Loum, Serafina Auberry, and Alissa Owens each had two.

Reese Shirey netted a game-high 16 points for Farmington (10-0) and 6-foot-3 senior sharpshooter Jenna Lawrence, who signed in November to become an Arkansas Razorback, finished with 13 points, all of them in the first half and 11 of them in the first quarter.

Farmington came one late 3-point basket short of a Class 4A state championship last season.

Joplin, 2-4 overall, plays Saturday for third place against another formidable opponent in Kickapoo, who lost 51-48 to Blue Valley North in the other semifinal and final game Friday.

“Short memory,” Cox said. “We’re going to have our hands full Saturday, either with a great Kickapoo team we already played (Kickapoo 83-38 to open the season) or a really good Blue Valley North team that has multiple D1 players. Our schedule’s never easy, but we’re always up for a challenge. All we’re worried about is bringing the best version of ourselves and letting everything else take care of itself after that.”

CARTHAGE, Mo. — After the lead changed hands several times in the third quarter, Joplin took the advantage into the fourth quarter and never relinquished it in a 56-50 win over Raymore-Peculiar in the semifinals of the 75th annual Carthage Invitational on Friday.

Joplin started the game on an 11-3 run before ultimately going into halftime trailing 31-27. Joplin scored the first six points of the third quarter but the Panthers battled back each time. The Eagles took the lead into the final eight minutes of action and never gave it up en route to the win.

“I told the guys to just talk to each other and keep it simple,” Joplin coach Bronson Schaake said after the win. “We try to make it harder than it needs to be. In the second half, I think we gave up 18 points. We guarded a lot better. … Ray-Pec is a really good team. They have played man but made it look like a zone and made it difficult for us. I thought we adjusted well in the second half to get some easy leakouts.”

The returning Carthage Invitational champions, Joplin has a chance to repeat with a matchup against Carthage tomorrow in the championship round at 4:30 p.m.

“We are just trying to improve,” Schaake said when asked what he wants to see from his Eagles in the title game. “We are really young in certain spots. We are still trying to figure out our rotations and whatnot. We are starting to gel a little bit better. It’s not always pretty, but I just want to see us go out and battle tomorrow.

“It gives the young guys needed experience. These last couple of games have been a battle test for them, so it’s nice to get these out of the way early in the season so they can grow from it.”

SCORING LEADERS

All Wright led Joplin with 34 points. Wright, who scored 13 points in the first quarter, had three 3-pointers and made 11 free throws. Quin Renfro had seven points, while Whit Hafer added six points in the win.

Ray-Pec had 10 3-pointers in the loss and were led in scoring by Brendan Perry’s 11 points on three 3-pointers. Holden Kephart sank two triples and scored eight, while Cannon Northcraft had nine points and two 3-pointers. 

GAME ACTION

The Eagles and Panthers traded baskets in the first half with Ray-Pec building a 31-27 advantage by the intermission.

Joplin came out of the intermission with the first six points of the second half to take a 33-31 lead with six minutes left in the period. Wright knocked down a baseline jumper to start the scoring and added a pair of free throws sandwiched around an inside basket from Cooper Williams.

Each time it looked as if the Eagles might pull away, however, the Panthers had an answer seemingly every time. Ashton Jermain splashed home a 3-pointer to give Ray-Pec a 34-33 lead with five minutes to play.

Joplin took the lead back on a 3-pointer from Wright and a charity by Terrance Gibson to make the score 37-34, but Jermain answered again with a 3-ball at the 3:45 mark to tie the game at 37-37.

After Renfro knocked down a 3-pointer to push the lead to 40-37, Ray-Pec regained the lead, 41-40, after a free throw from Kephart and a 3-ball from Brendan Perry with 1:46 to play.

“It was a battle,” Schaake said. “They have four or five shooters. That’s hard to guard for our bigs, too. I thought they did what they had to do, especially hedging on screens.”

The Eagles took the 43-41 lead—the quarter’s fifth lead change—into the final eight minutes to play when Wright buried a runner at the buzzer from NBA range.

Unlike the third quarter, there were zero lead changes in the fourth quarter. Hafer started the final period with an inside bucket before knocking down two shots at the stripe for a 47-41 advantage. After Northcraft sank a triple to trim the deficit to three for Ray-Pec, Wright scored on a scrum inside and drew a foul in the process, converting the and-1 free throw for a 50-44 advantage by Joplin.

Joplin used two free throws from Wright, an inside score from Renfro in transition and two free throws from Renfro inside the final 90 seconds to seal the win.

“We got the key stops that we needed to,” Schaake said about holding on the lead throughout the fourth quarter. “We were diving on loose balls and everything. We were really making the right plays, the right hustle plays. It was a griddy game, so you’re going to have tough plays to win.”