The Carthage High School wrestling competed at the Excelsior Springs Tiger Classic on Saturday.
Carthage had three individual champions, as Aydan Nye won his bracket at 126-pounds and Davion King was the champ at 165 A and Gabe Lambeth won the 165 B bracket.
Grady Huntley (120) and Esvin Gonzalez (175) both placed second, while Tanner Putt (106), Bradyn Tate (132) and Grey Petticrew (150) all finished third.
Also for CHS, Alberto Sales took fifth at 113 and Brandon Perez was sixth at 138.
WEBB CITY COMPETES AT MONETT
Webb City was among the teams competing at the 51st annual Monett Tournament.
Tyler Pearish was the champion at 106 pounds, while Colt Taylor was the runner-up at 132.
Aiden Moore took fourth at 138, Aidan Rose (150) and Dominic Boles (157) both finished fifth and Garret Mathis took sixth at 285.
Carson Farmer (144) and Bronson Collard (165) both placed seventh.
Monett’s Simon Hartline was the champion at 120.
CARL JUNCTION COMPETES AT JENKS
The Carl Junction Bulldogs competed at the Larry Wilkey Invitational at Jenks High School in Oklahoma.
Two athletes from Carl Junction finished fourth in their respective brackets, Tony Stewart at 165 and Chance Benford at 190.
Marcus Lopez-Durman (150) and Dexter Merrell (157) both finished fifth in their brackets.
After suffering a loss to Francis Howell in the semifinals on Friday night, Joplin rerbounded for a 66-60 win over Poplar Bluff in the Kaminsky Classic third-place game on Saturday inside Kaminsky Gymnasium.
The Eagles (7-4), who never trailed and played shorthanded without forward Terrance Gibson after he missed the game due to illness, took a slim lead into the second quarter before using large scoring runs to open the second and third quarters to build a double-digit cushion that reached as much as 20 points in the second half. The Mules (6-6) cut the lead to six in the fourth quarter, but would get no closer by the final horn.
“We played three quarters of good-enough basketball and then just got sloppy,” Joplin coach Bronson Schaake said about the win. “I think we shot 8-of-18 from the free-throw line and missed some bunnies here and there, but we just didn’t close in the fourth like we needed to and they made it a ball game. We got it to 20 at one point, which I thought we’d push it out, but then they cut it to six. We have to close better than we did. I don’t think we guarded well, particularly in that fourth quarter. We got tired. But, after last night, it was good to see them bounce back.”
GAME ACTION
After taking a 9-6 lead into the second quarter, Joplin opened the second period on a 13-0 run to take a 22-6 lead after keeping the Mules off the scoreboard for nearly the entire first half of the quarter.
“That’s who we are,” Schaake said. “We play in spurts like that. Now, we just have to figure out that next step of closing things out a little better. That was good going into halftime with that lead. It was good momentum.”
On the offensive end, the Eagles used 3-pointers from All Wright and Grayden Cravens to push the lead to 15-6. After a steal from Quin Renfro turned into a mid-range bucket from Cooper Williams, Whit Hafer grabbed a defensive board and found Wright on the outlet, with Wright flushing home a one-handed dunk and drawing contact in the process for a three-point play. Williams closed the run with an offensive rebound and a mid-range jumper for a 16-point cushion.
“He is doing a great job even on our press break,” Schaake said about Hafer’s performance with Gibson sidelined. “He is under control and is looking over the defense. He is getting more and more calmer, in a sense. The game is slowing down for him. He can shoot the mid-rae and the 3. He had a dunk tonight where he relocated himself really well. He is getting better and better each game.”
Poplar Bluff, which shot just 31 percent from the field in the first two quarters, whittled the lead to 11 by the intermission, 29-18, after closing the second period on an 8-3 surge with all four baskets coming in the paint.
The Eagles nearly copied and pasted their fast start from the second quarter to start the second half, surging out on a 14-4 run to build a 20-point lead, 42-22, with a little over four minutes left on the clock.
“We always preach that the first two minutes of the second half are the most-important minutes of the game,” Schaake said. “We came out and got stops and kept building on that. We need to find a way to carry that into the fourth quarter.”
Hafer started the scoring with an inside bucket before Wright grabbed an offensive rebound for a putback, knocked down a mid-range jumper and drew contact after converting on a floater in the lane. The and-1 attempt was no good, but Hobbs Gooch grabbed the rebound and put it back up for a bucket to make the score 39-20 with 5:25 on the clock. Wright closed the run with a deep 3-ball from the wing.
“They were all over him and he’s gotten hammered quite a bit in this tournament,” Schaake said of Wright’s performance. “He’s getting trapped and is going to draw contact. I thought he fought through fatigue. Playing that much basketball in three days, he just fought through it. He keeps going. I don’t know how he does it, but he’s our guy so we expect it from him.”
Joplin ultimately took a 13-point lead into the final eight minutes of action, but Poplar Bluff cut the lead to single digits early in the fourth quarter after a common foul call led to a technical foul on the Eagles and three converted free throws by the Mules to makes the score 54-46 with 5:43 left in regulation.
The Mules got as close as six to the lead on a pair of free throws by Isaiah Nevel with 1:42 left, but Wright helped ice the win for Joplin after converting in the lane on the next trip and adding two free throws with 55 seconds left to push the lead back out to 10, 62-52.
STAT LEADERS
Joplin shot 48 percent from the field as a team (27-for-56) and limited Poplar Bluff to 36 percent shooting (20-for-56). Joplin won the rebound battle 41-33 and held the advantage in second-chance points, 17-7.
Wright led all scorers with a game-high 32 points on 11-of-20 shooting, including 7-of-12 from the free-throw line. He made three 3-pointers, had three rebounds, three assists, two blocks and two steals. Renfro was 5-of-11 shooting for 10 points, five rebounds and four assists. Hafer closed the game with a game-high 16 rebounds, 12 on the offensive end, and added eight points, three assists and a steal.
Gavin Rivers had 22 points, four rebounds and two assists in the loss for Poplar Bluff. Torrence Williams had eight points and six rebounds.
UP NEXT
Joplin is at Carthage on Tuesday as part of a doubleheader.
A year ago, the Webb City Cardinals fell short in the Kaminsky Classic’s championship game.
This year, the Cardinals made sure history did not repeat itself.
By coming through in crunch time, and by securing one last defensive stop, Webb City knocked off Francis Howell 53-52 on Saturday in a thrilling finale of Joplin High School’s annual boys basketball tournament inside Kaminsky Gymnasium.
“I’m proud of our guys because we were mentally tough late in the game,” Cardinals coach Jason Horn said. “We didn’t let the momentum swing bother us. We stayed level-headed, we kept our composure, and we were able to make a few more plays late in the game.
“Right now, we have a really confident group,” Horn added. “We keep telling them that all of these games are just practice to get ready for the postseason. I think our guys feel like they can play with anybody right now. If we stay connected and play as a team, I think we can too.”
Webb City junior guard Barron Duda puts up a shot in the lane against Francis Howell on Saturday during the championship game of the Kaminsky Classic at Joplin High School. Photo by Israel Perez.
The back-and-forth title game featured six ties and nine lead changes.
The Cardinals trailed by a single tally when junior guard Barron Duda scored a go-ahead hoop in the paint with 1:46 remaining.
Neither team scored the rest of the way.
However, the Vikings had a couple of good looks in the final seconds of the game.
Following a timeout with six seconds left, Francis Howell’s Donovan Sparks missed a point-blank shot from in close before a tie-up resulted in a jump ball, giving the Vikings another offensive possession.
Francis Howell’s Dwight Lomax missed a contested 3-pointer just before the buzzer sounded, securing the tourney title for the Cardinals.
“You have to give Francis Howell credit,” Horn said. “They drew up some good plays to get some good looks around the basket late in the game. Our guys battled through and they came up with a big stop and a big rebound at the end to seal the win.”
It was the third straight season the Cardinals were in the event’s title game, and this is their second tourney championship.
Joplin edged Webb City in last year’s championship game after the Cardinals beat the Eagles for the crown in ’21.
NAMES & NUMBERS
Winners of eight straight games, the Cardinals hiked their record to 10-2.
Webb City made 22-of-42 field goal attempts (52 percent), but the Cardinals went just 3-for-14 on 3-pointers.
Duda scored 18 points, grabbed eight rebounds and had four steals to lead the Cardinals, while sophomore guard Holton Keith added 11 points and four assists.
Webb City sophomore guard Eli Pace shoots from in close against Francis Howell’s Brennon Wibbenmeyer (10) and Dwight Lomax (2) during Saturday’s Kaminsky Classic title game. Photo by Israel Perez.
Omari Jackson and Eli Pace contributed seven points apiece, while Alex Martin scored six points and pulled down 10 rebounds. Joe Adams and Joel Hendrix added two points apiece. Duda and Martin were all-tourney selections.
Webb City scored 36 of their 53 points in the paint.
Francis Howell (7-4) made 18-of-44 field goal attempts (41 percent), with 7-of-20 from beyond the arc.
Donovan and Lomax scored 13 points apiece for the Vikings, who out-rebounded the Cardinals 29-23.
GAME RECAP: A BACK-AND-FORTH THRILLER
The contest was deadlocked late in the first quarter when Webb City’s Martin made one free throw and then converted a steal into a layup to give the Cardinals an 18-15 lead.
Webb City began the second quarter on a 12-3 surge, with Duda, Jackson and Pace all contributing hoops.
Jackson’s strong drive through the lane gave the Cardinals a 30-18 advantage with just under four minutes remaining in the first half.
But the Vikings responded with a burst of their own, as Francis Howell finished the second quarter on a 10-2 run, cutting Webb City’s halftime advantage to 33-28.
“I thought we had a great start to the game and I thought we were connected defensively,” Horn said. “We did a good job early of keeping them off the glass. They used their size to their advantage in the second and third quarters.”
Francis Howell outscored Webb City 11-8 in the back-and-forth third quarter, trimming the Cardinals’ cushion to 41-39 entering the final frame.
Webb City sophomore guard Holton Keith looks for an opening against the Francis Howell defense on Saturday during the Kaminsky Classic’s title game. Photo by Israel Perez.
Webb City had to finish the game without Pace, a primary ball-handler who fouled out with just over six minutes to play.
The last tie score came at 47-all following a bucket inside from Webb City’s Hendrix, who had just come off the bench.
The Vikings received three points from Sparks, while the Cardinals answered with two buckets from Keith, the last giving Webb City a 51-50 advantage.
Sparks made two free throws to give his team a one-point cushion with two minutes left. Duda’s hoop soon followed, and it was the final basket of the night.
Both teams had empty possessions and turnovers late in the clash.
“We had some execution breakdowns late in the game, maybe not paying attention to the time and score,” Horn said. “We were a little loose with the ball. But we’ve got a young team and we need to keep growing. We have to learn that if you have a good team down, you can’t let them back in the game, you have to finish the job.”
Most importantly, the Cardinals held the Vikings scoreless in the final 2:05.
“This win means a lot to us,” said Keith, a sophomore guard. “This game was a lot of fun. We just wanted to play hard and play good defense. It took defense and rebounding in the fourth quarter.”
WHAT’S NEXT?
Webb City will open conference play at home on Tuesday night against Neosho.
2023 Kaminsky Classic
Saturday’s results
7th place: Neosho 44, Carl Junction 38
5th place: Jefferson City 68, William Chrisman 53
3rd place: Joplin 66, Poplar Bluff 60
Title game: Webb City 53, Francis Howell 52
ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM
Barron Duda, Webb City
Alex Martin, Webb City
Dwight Lomax, Francis Howell
Donovan Sparks, Francis Howell
All Wright, Joplin
Whit Hafer, Joplin
Jordan Martin, Jefferson City
Troy Taylor, William Chrisman
Webb City senior forward Alex Martin puts up a shot in the lane against Francis Howell on Saturday at Joplin High School. Martin and the Cardinals won the Kaminsky Classic. Photo by Israel Perez.
It was a tale of two halves on Saturday in the seventh-place game of the Kaminsky Classic between the Neosho Wildcats and the Carl Junction Bulldogs at Kaminsky Gymnasium.
Carl Junction shot 11-23 (47.8 percent) while Neosho shot 5-21 (23.8 percent) from the floor during a first half that produced a 30-13 halftime lead for the Bulldogs.
After halftime, though, Neosho shot 12-22 (54.5 percent) while Carl Junction dipped to 4-16 (25 percent) from the floor and the Wildcats turned a 17-point halftime deficit into a 44-38 victory with a 31-8 advantage in the second half.
Neosho only led for 2 minutes and 18 seconds on Saturday, but they proved to be the 2:18 that mattered the most, specifically the final 1:54.
“Like I told the guys, it was more like 31-6 … they scored late in the game when we were just trying to stall time,” Neosho coach Zane Culp said. “At halftime, we challenged them. ‘Listen, we’re not making any shots, but the fact that we gave up 30 points is also very bad. If we would have just dug in and played good defense, we honestly thought it should have been tied or maybe they led by a little bit. We’re not going to win the game by doing it just once. We just have to continue to get stops and slowly get back into it.’ That’s exactly what happened.”
The Wildcats ratcheted up the defensive pressure on Carl Junction after halftime and accumulated 19 of their 22 points off turnovers in the final 16 minutes.
Carl Junction also took and made seven fewer shots, went 0-4 from 3-point range, and had no free-throw attempts in the second half.
“It almost forced us to play good defense,” Culp said. “If we weren’t going to be up in passing lanes or if we weren’t going to get steals or if we weren’t going to be diving on the floor, it didn’t matter if we got a bunch of stops in a row because the time would just go away. We had to get steals, and we did that. Isaiah Green had a good spurt there which helped us … everybody played well.”
Senior guard Green continued to be the definition of a stat-sheet stuffer and led Neosho with 14 points, seven assists and seven steals, and he also finished with four rebounds. His steal and slam dunk put an exclamation point on Neosho’s turnaround—a 41-36 lead with 41 seconds remaining in regulation.
Carter Baslee added 11 points and seven rebounds, while fellow senior Kael Smith finished with 10 points, nine rebounds, two assists, three blocked shots, and three steals.
Neosho seniors Brock Franklin, Michael Day, and Carter Fenske each hit a trifecta for their three points.
Franklin’s three gave the Wildcats a 38-36 lead with 1:54 remaining, their first lead since Green opened the game’s scoring with a layup.
“We had three 3s in the fourth and those were huge,” Culp said. “You’re going to have to hit outside shots to beat teams. That’s just the way basketball is now. It was good to hit a few (outside shots), probably still missed too many, but we had to have those, and it was nice to see them go through.”
Neosho has struggled at times shooting the ball in recent games, including the first half Saturday against Carl Junction.
The Wildcats improved to 10-4 overall and they avoided heading into Central Ozark Conference play on a three-game losing streak.
“The road doesn’t get any easier, that’s for sure,” Culp said. “Webb City, who’s playing in the championship game tonight, we’ve got them on Tuesday and Willard, who just beat Bolivar last night, on Thursday. Right after that, we’ve got Mac (McDonald County), who’s always a big game, and then we play Forsyth, who’s ranked ninth in Class 4.
“Just to show ourselves how good we could be and how if we’re down that we shouldn’t give in and anything can happen, it was good to see.”
Ayden Bard led Carl Junction with 12 points and seven rebounds, Cooper Vediz added 10 points and three rebounds, and Wyatt McAfee totaled six points and seven rebounds.
Carl Junction dropped to 5-8 overall and the Bulldogs open COC play at home Tuesday against a Republic squad currently 12-1 overall, ranked ninth in Class 6 by the Missouri Basketball Coaches Association, and on an 11-game winning streak since an early-season loss against Springdale, Ark.
Conference rivals Neosho and Carl Junction meet again Feb. 14 in Carl Junction.
