Joplin built a nine-point advantage early and held off several pushes at the lead by Branson before pulling away late to a 79-57 Central Ozark Conference win over the Pirates on Friday inside Kaminsky Gymnasium.
“Tuesday night (against Webb City) was a hard-fought game between two good teams,” Joplin coach Bronson Schaake said after his team earned a bounce-back conference win on Friday. “I don’t think we guarded well tonight, but we did enough. Offensively, I thought we looked smoother. We are getting into the paint, too, which is what we needed to do.”
The Eagles, who improved to 11-2 and 1-1 in conference play, finished with three players in double-figure scoring. Sophomore guard All Wright knocked down three 3-pointers and finished with a game-high 24 points, while senior guard Always Wright converted eight times from the field for 17 points. Sophomore forward Whit Hafer, who lost most of a year of development as a freshman last season because of an injury, had 12 points in the win. Junior forward Terrance Gibson finished with eight points.
“I feel like I am getting a lot more confident,” Hafer said about his growth in his first full season at the varsity level. “The flow of the game is coming back to me and slowing down in my head. That’s a big part of it. The confidence that comes with that has allowed me to move very fast. Missing that year of development, it was hard to get back.”
“We have a good rotation going right now,” Schaake said about staggering Gibson’s and Hafer’s time on the floor together in order to always have a conventional big in play. “Calvin (Clark) has been getting better, too. We have some bigs we can rotate who play different styles of basketball and that helps.”
Branson (5-8, 0-2 COC) was led in scoring by Ethan Jones’ 19 points. Kyle Scharbrough finished with 18 points, and Jack VanSickle closed with 10 in the loss.
GAME ACTION
Joplin limited Branson to two field goals and three free throws in the first eight minutes of action while building a nine-point lead.
Leading 4-3, Joplin scored seven straight points to take an 11-3 lead backed by an inside bucket from Hafer, a dunk on the break off a turnover by Always Wright and a layup off the break by Brantley Morris. All Wright closed the first quarter with a mid-range jumper and a 3-pointer to give the Eagles a 16-7 lead heading into the second quarter.
All Wright continued his strong play with a driving score to kick off the second quarter, giving the Eagles their first double-digit lead of the game, 18-7.
It was a back-and-forth game over the next four-plus minutes of action before Branson trimmed the deficit to five, 29-24, off three straight field goals from Scharbrough, which included a 3-pointer, with less than three minutes to play.
Joplin closed the first half on an 8-2 run with field goals from Always Wright and Bruce Wilbert to lead 37-26 at the intermission.
“I think a lot of it is they are still figuring me out, too,” Schaake said when talking about his team’s ability to respond to adversity, which was on display several times against the Pirates. “I am trying to motivate them in a sense and they are responding well.”
Joplin methodically pushed the lead out to a more comfortable position in the third quarter, using a 9-4 run towards the later stages to build an 18-point advantage, 57-39. Hafer filled out the run with a pair of dunks, while Quin Renfro scored on the drive and All Wright knocked down a 3-ball.
“When you go from freshman to varsity, especially when you don’t get a full freshman year, it takes a long time to adjust to the speed of the game,” Schaake has said of Hafer’s development on the court this season. “That’s what people don’t understand. But, he is a big kid with bounce. He is a very athletic kid who has been putting in extra work. He’s been coming in early in the morning at about 7:30 a.m. and working on his game, and it is paying off for him. He is very coachable and he has a very high ceiling.”
Joplin took a 57-41 lead into the final period, but Branson rallied to cut the lead to 60-49 less than three minutes in. The Eagles answered with an 11-2 run to push the lead to 20 points with a little more than three minutes to play.
Renfro scored on the drive before All Wright converted inside while drawing contact for a three-point play. Always Wright and Morris added buckets before All Wright sank two charities with 3:13 left to make the score 71-51, giving Joplin an insurmountable lead while closing out the conference win.
“They are listening,” Schaake said about his team’s development to this point in his first season as head coach. “I think they are starting to see the success and are adding to it. They are starting to figure out one another in terms of chemistry, and so am I with them—still trying to figure out tendencies whatnot. They listen and when they want to turn it on and play hard, they are a fun team to watch. I think it is a group with a very high ceiling, and I hope we are trending in the right direction.”
UP NEXT
Joplin takes part in the Bill Hanson Memorial Tournament in Pittsburg, Kansas, on Jan. 20.
