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.
