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.”
