Always Wright admitted he may have been pressing just a bit too hard during the early stages of the Joplin boys basketball team’s season opener.
It’s understandable, as the junior guard is his team’s lone returning starter.
But as soon as Wright let the game come to him, the shots began to fall—again and again.
Wright poured in 32 points and led Joplin to an 80-60 non-conference victory over McDonald County on Tuesday night inside Kaminsky Gymnasium.
“I didn’t know I had that much,” Wright said when informed of his scoring total. “Whoa…OK. That’s my career-high for a high school game. It was fun being out here tonight.”
The 6-foot-3 sharpshooter made 13 field goals—seven 2-pointers and six 3-pointers.
“He made a lot,” Joplin coach Jeff Hafer said. “I’m going to go look and see how many he missed. He’s a good shooter, but Always has more to his game than that. When you can shoot the ball like Always does, it’s really hard to pass up some of those open ones. But he’s got more to his game. He can create for people. Obviously, Always scored the ball well. ”
Wright scored 14 points in the first half and added 18 more after the break.
“At first, I was putting too much pressure on myself and I was forcing some things,” Wright said. “I just had to go through the offense and I got a lot of good looks from that.”
Wright showed he’s more than a jump-shooter, as he had success driving to the hoop. He nearly threw down a dunk, too, but Wright threw it off the back of the rim on the one-handed attempt.
“I wanted to attack the rim and get their bigs in foul trouble and just put pressure on the defense,” Wright said.
Two others reached double figures for the Eagles, as sophomore guard Dante Washington scored 20 points in an impressive varsity debut. Washington, a 6-1 guard, made eight 2-point field goals and knocked in 4-of-7 free throws.
“Dante Washington running the floor just puts pressure on the defense,” Hafer said.
Freshman guard All Wright added 10 points with a pair of treys in his prep debut. Junior forward LT Atherton contributed eight points.
Joplin’s starting lineup featured Always Wright, Dominick Simmons, Washington, Atherton and Micah Bruggeman. Hafer used 11 different players in the game.
“We’re still finding our way,” Hafer said. “We played a lot of kids. We’re still seeing where everybody fits with different lineups. We have a lot to get better at. We’ve got to get better defensively. But I was pleased. In the second half, we stopped settling as much and we started playing inside-out like we want to. And it’s amazing when we do that how easy it is to get shots to go in.”
McDonald County’s Pierce Harmon scored 14 points and Garrett Gricks added 11.
Joplin led 16-8 after a hoop in the paint from 6-5 sophomore Terrance Gibson, but the Mustangs closed the opening frame on a 7-0 run, capped by a wing trey from Sterling Woods.
Washington’s two hoops in transition and Atherton’s pair of free throws pushed Joplin’s advantage to 33-22 with four minutes remaining in the first half.
By the break, the Eagles held a 41-29 lead.
“We went on a little run in the second quarter that was key to separating, but then we kind of played even,” Hafer said.
The Eagles turned up the defensive pressure after intermission, which led to hoops in transition off McDonald County’s turnovers.
“I liked the way we started the second half,” Hafer said. “We came out and started turning them over and got some easy ones.”
A corner trey from Always Wright pushed Joplin’s lead to 57-38 with 2:15 remaining in the third quarter.
A long trey from the left wing by Always Wright made it 69-47 with 5:23 left, and the Eagles never relinquished their lead.
“That was good for us,” Hafer said of the opener. “With what we’re going to see in the COC, and on our schedule, it was a good first game. Mac plays hard, they have good guards, they have size. They have everything you want to see how you stack up. They’re going to get better, too. There wasn’t a lot of defense, but there’s a lot to take away from this one offensively.”
NOTES: Joplin won the junior varsity game 75-33. The Eagles won the freshman game 47-43. The Eagles host Pittsburg on Dec. 4.
Joplin 80, McDonald County 60
Mac Co. 15 14 13 18–60
Joplin 16 25 20 19–80
MCDONALD COUNTY (60): Trent Alik 2, Pierce Harmon 14, Cross Dowd 8, Sterling Woods 5, Cole Martin 7, Irael Marcos 1, Jackson Clarkson 4, Teddy Reedybacon 6, Weston Gordon 2, Garrett Gricks 11.
JOPLIN (80): Always Wright 32, All Wright 10, Dante Washington 20, Dominick Simmons 2, Micah Bruggeman 1, Joe Jasper 3, LT Atherton 8, Terrance Gibson 4, Fielding Campbell 0, Carson Wampler 0, Zayshon Hugley 0.
