NEOSHO, Mo. — Joplin’s strong second quarter erased a small deficit and built the game’s first real cushion at the same time, with the Eagles holding off Neosho in the second half on the way to a 76-69 win in Central Ozark Conference action on Tuesday.
Neosho (16-5, 3-1 COC) took a slim lead into the second quarter when Joplin’s defense settled in and led to a scoring surge from the offense that gave the Eagles (12-8, 3-2 COC) an 11-point lead into halftime. Joplin held off a Neosho push at the lead early in the third quarter and again held off the Wildcats down the stretch in the fourth to preserve the win.
“I thought in the first quarter they just kept getting layup after layup from the block,” Joplin coach Bronson Schaake said about the second quarter after the win. “I thought we guarded a lot better in the second quarter, and we started making shots. I thought All (Wright) was doing his thing and I thought Whit (Hafer) played really well. Same with (Terrance Gibson).”
“They’re a team that can shoot the heck out of the ball,” Schaake added about closing out the win. “They have unlimited range and (Isaiah) Green is really good. It was a physical game. We were getting to the rim as well and getting stops when we needed to at the end.”
GAME ACTION
After a back-and-forth first quarter that saw four ties before Neosho took a 20-18 lead into the second period, Joplin used a strong defensive effort to take control of the lead by the intermission.
The Eagles, who scored the final two buckets of the first quarter, limited the Wildcats to one field goal five minutes of game action in the second period while going on a 16-2 scoring surge to take a 34-22 advantage with three minutes left in the first half.
“We just told them what they were trying to run and you anticipate instead of reacting,” Schaake said. “Our kids listened extremely well and then the effort caught up.”
Wright fueled the run with seven points, including a 3-pointer, while Gibson had four points and Hafer added a corner 3-pointer to close the run. Also key, Joplin was a perfect six-for-six shooting from the free-throw line during that stretch.
Joplin ultimately took a 41-30 lead into the intermission after Wright buried a stepback 3-pointer at the buzzer.
Neosho used an early 10-2 run in the third quarter to trim the lead to five, 47-42, midway through but that would be as close to the lead as the Wildcats would get in the period. Isaiah Green fueled the run with all 10 points in the run.
“On the road, everything is momentum-based,” Schaake said. “Kids look up at the clock and the score and can panic. We actually ran some motion for a while and got some clean looks, and that’s when we pushed it back to eight.”
Wright knocked down a mid-range pullup jumper with five seconds left in the quarter to give Joplin a 57-49 advantage with eight minutes to play.
Again, Neosho made a run at the lead through the first half of the fourth quarter, cutting its deficit to three points with 4:43 left in regulation after Green sank a pair of charity shots to cap a 6-0 run and make the score 59-56.
Again, Joplin answered, and this time it put the game out of reach for Neosho. Leading by one possession, Hafer grabbed a defensive rebound and went coast to coast for a two-handed dunk before Gibson earned a steal for a dunk on the break the other way for back to back scores. After a free throw from Neosho, Wright drove the lane and drew contact for a three-point play to give the Eagles a 65-56 lead with 2:35 left to play and all of the momentum en route to the conference win.
“Anytime you can get your big men running the floor like that,” Schaake said with a smile. “The kids like that. They like to see a dunk here and there and then some and-1 buckets. That was a huge sequence that we went through.”
SCORING LEADERS
Wright finished with a team-high 32 points in the win, while Gibson closed with 17. Hafer added 11 and Fred Taylor was one away from double figures with nine points.
Green led all scorers with a team-high 37 points in the loss for Neosho, which included 11 field goals and was 14-of-15 shooting from the free-throw line. Carter Baslee finished in double figures with 16 points, while Kael Smith added eight.
UP NEXT
Joplin hosts Willard on Friday.
Neosho hosts Ozark on Friday.
