CARTHAGE, Mo. — Joplin took control of the lead in the first half against Rush and never relinquished it on the way to a 61-52 win in the opening round of the 75th annual Carthage Invitational on Thursday.
The Eagles, last year’s Carthage Invitational champions, took the first step in repeating on Thursday after outscoring Rush 15-10 in the second period to take a five-point lead into the intermission. Joplin stayed out in front in the second half, playing with a lead that wavered between double digits to two possessions through the final horn.
With the win, Joplin improves to 2-1 on the season and advances to play Raymore-Peculiar at 7 p.m. on Friday.
The Eagles were led in scoring by All Wright’s game-high 26 points, including a game-high five 3-pointers. Quin Renfro was right behind with 19 points for the Eagles, 15 of which came in the second half. Whit Hafer finished with six points, while Terrance Gibson added five.
Joe Graves led Rush with 19 points, 13 coming in the second half. Tanner Engel finished the loss with 13 points.
After going into the second quarter tied, Joplin took the momentum early after building a seven-point lead on a 3-pointer and driving score from Collis Jones and an inside score from Renfro. The Eagles pushed the lead to nine in the second period on another 3-ball from Wright in the corner with 1:33 left before the intermission before Rush got a pair of free throws from Engel and a driving bucket from Brady Bishop to close out the half down five, 28-23.
Joplin played in front for the entire third quarter, pushing the lead to 10 for the first time in the second half with 1:46 left in the period on a steal and score on the break by Renfro.
Rush trimmed the lead to two possessions, 52-48, on a bucket from Graves with 3:10 left in the game, but the Eagles answered back with a pullup jumper from Wright before Renfro picked off another pass for a runout to push the lead back to eight with two minutes left.
