Kickapoo opened the game on a large scoring run and Joplin never recovered as the Chiefs went on to defeat the Eagles 83-54 on Tuesday in non-conference action inside Kaminsky Gymnasium.
“I have to do better for them,” Joplin coach Bronson Schaake said. “Whatever it is that caused that start, that is on me. I’ll take responsibility and that is for me to fix.”
The loss is the third in four games for the Eagles, who fall to 12-5 on the season. Joplin hosts East Newton on Thursday.
“I want to see how bad they want it,” Schaake said when asked how he wants to see his team respond to their first sign of adversity on the schedule. “We will see how badly they want (to improve) tomorrow at practice. We have to get refocused. I told them there was going to be a time where they went through this and how they respond means everything to me. If you want to be a team that can potentially do some things, you have to fight through stuff like this.”
Kickapoo opened the game with all of the momentum, outscoring Joplin 14-2 over the first four-plus minutes of action before the game was delayed nearly 40 minutes after someone activated a fire extinguisher in the boys bathroom. The delay forced both teams into the locker room while the gym was aired out and the floor was swept and mopped.
Brayden Shorter highlighted the opening surge for the Chiefs with three 3-pointers, while Harrison Doennig added a pair of scores inside.
“We gave them clean looks for no reason,” Schaake said about the Chiefs’ start. “We talked about who could shoot (Shorter), and you look up and he has nine points and it’s 14-2. But, that’s on me. Once they got rolling, they just kept going.”
After play resumed, Kickapoo closed the first quarter with a 21-7 lead. Shorter and Trae Oetting knocked down 3-pointers midway through the second period to push the Chiefs’ lead to 31-13 with 4:25 on the clock.
Joplin’s Always Wright answered with a deep 3-ball from the wing before All Wright drove inside for a score to trim the lead to 31-18.
Kickapoo closed the first half with a 6-2 run on buckets from Doennig, Zaide Lowery and Oetting to push the lead to 19 by the intermission, 43-24.
Oetting knocked down a 3-pointer from the corner to open the second half, giving the Chiefs a 22-point lead.
Joplin whittled the lead down to 14, 54-40, with 3:56 on the clock after a pair of charities from All Wright, but Kickapoo responded by closing the third on an 8-3 run to push the lead back to 19 heading into the fourth quarter, 62-43.
Kickapoo scored the first seven points of the final period of play to push its lead to 69-43, setting the tone for the remainder of the game. Lowery highlighted the early scoring with a three-point play, while Oetting added a basket on the break.
SCORING LEADERS
Shorter led Kickapoo with 22 points, 12 coming on 3-pointers. Oetting finished with 19 and Lowery had 17 in the win. Doennig closed with nine.
Always Wright and All Wright led Joplin in scoring with 16 points each. Quin Renfro closed with eight points, while Brantley Morris and Terrance Gibson each had six.
