CARTHAGE, Mo. — For the first time since 2011, the host Tigers are the champions of their own Carthage Invitational boys basketball tournament.
Carthage torched the nets early and never trailed on the way to a 70-59 victory over rival Webb City on Saturday night in the 77th edition of the annual tournament.
The hot-shooting Tigers built a 12-point cushion by the end of the first quarter and the hosts were up by 20 entering the final frame.
The visiting Cardinals trimmed their deficit to single digits late in the game, but the Tigers never surrendered the lead. As a result, Carthage was the team celebrating with a tourney championship when the night concluded.
“I’m really proud of that group of kids,” Carthage coach Nathan Morris said. “It’s fun to come to work. We enjoy practice every single day. These kids have been great. Now they get to reap the benefits of what they’ve put in. We hadn’t won this tournament in 11 or 12 years. It wasn’t perfect tonight, but I’m just really proud of all of those kids in the locker room.”
Carthage came out on fire in the opening frame. The Tigers made five 3-pointers in the first quarter, three from senior Justin Ray and one apiece from junior Trent Yates and sophomore Landon Ray, to take a 21-9 lead.
Webb City stayed within striking distance after senior Barron Duda hit his second trey of the contest, but Justin Ray’s 14th point of the first half gave the hosts a 28-14 advantage.
Carthage’s Taylor Stevens-Diggs scored three straight hoops off the bench and the Cardinals received buckets from Joel Hendrix, Joseph DeGraffenreid and Holton Keith late in the second quarter before the Tigers took a 34-21 lead into the break.
Simply put, while the Tigers shot well from the perimeter early in the contest, the Cardinals did not.
“It wasn’t the start we wanted,” Webb City coach Jason Horn said. “We didn’t shoot well and we didn’t finish plays around the basket. We had good looks. And Carthage has the best player in the area in Justin Ray. He’s as good as anybody in the COC.”
Carthage outscored Webb City 21-14 in the third quarter to take a commanding 55-35 advantage.
Webb City didn’t go down quietly. In fact, the Cardinals outscored the Tigers 24-15 in the fourth quarter.
The visitors trimmed their deficit all the way down to nine at 65-56 with 1:55 left after a hoop from Keith.
But Webb City simply had too many empty possessions in the fourth quarter, and Carthage converted more than enough free throws late in the game to secure the win.
“Those three guards for Webb City are great,” Morris said. “We had a great game plan and tried to limit them. We tried to take away Barron Duda as much as we could. Credit to our kids for locking into the scouting report and for executing tonight.”
Justin Ray poured in 25 points and was named the tourney’s Most Valuable Player.
Stevens-Diggs scored 16 points and Kruz Castor added 14. Landon Ray scored nine and Yates added six.
The Tigers made 14 of 25 free throws in the game, with 12 makes coming in the second half.
“We’re a team that’s going to shoot a lot of 3s, but I challenged them to get downhill and get to the foul line,” Morris said. “When we got fouled, for the most part we were able to bury our free throws.”
Duda led Webb City with 19 points and Keith added 17. Pace had 10 points and Omari Jackson scored nine.
“It was our fourth game of the week and I think fatigue started to set in, especially with the way we play,” Horn said. “We’ve got some guys who still have limited practices and they’re playing their way into shape. And there may have been some nerves at the start of the game. We had some guys who were playing in a championship game for the first time. But I have to give our guys credit. They kept playing hard. We played through the misses. We’ll get better and more organized.”
Morris noted capturing a tourney championship should give his squad a nice confidence boost.
“This can only be good for us leading into a week where we play two of the better teams in the state of Missouri,” Morris said. “We’ve got Springfield Central and Sparta coming up and it should be a good challenge for us.”
Carthage (3-0) hosts Springfield Central on Tuesday and Webb City (3-1) is at Rogers Heritage on Tuesday.
The Cardinals and Tigers will meet again in COC play on Jan. 30 inside Webb City’s Cardinal Dome.
RAYMORE-PECULIAR 48, JOPLIN 41
Joplin’s late comeback attempt fell short in the tournament’s third-place game.
Raymore-Peculiar used a 12-0 run in the first quarter to take control.
The Panthers, who hit five treys in the opening frame, took a 22-10 lead into the second quarter.
By the break, Ray-Pec held a 28-20 advantage.
Joplin kept coming, limiting the Panthers to five points in the third period.
The Eagles made things interesting late in the game.
After a hoop from Collis Jones and a corner 3-pointer from Brecken Green, the Eagles only trailed by three with 50 seconds left.
But Ray-Pec’s Ashton Jermain made four key free throws late in the game to seal the win for the Panthers.
Jermain scored 19 points to lead the Panthers and Brendan Perry added 16.
Fred Taylor led Joplin with 12 points, while Hobbs Gooch and Jones added six points apiece. Tristan Gage scored five for JHS and Carter Harbin had four.
“For three quarters, we were really good defensively,” Joplin coach Nick Pfeifer said. “After a poor first quarter, we had to fight our way back and play from behind the rest of the way. I was proud of the way that we competed, got ourselves back into it, and even had some chances to take the lead late. However, we know that playing incomplete games and only scoring 41 points makes it very difficult. We must be able to take the lessons learned from the tournament and continue to improve.”
NEVADA 52, LEAVENWORTH 43 (OT)
The Nevada Tigers ended the invite on a high note by beating Leavenworth in overtime in the fifth-place game.
The game was deadlocked at 41 at the end of regulation before Nevada outscored Leavenworth 11-2 in the extra session.
“I’m really proud of the grit our guys showed in the second half of this game,” Nevada coach Shaun Gray said. “Shots were not falling and the ball was not bouncing our way, but we stayed the course and continued to grind. Several players stepped up big for us. Our defense was the difference tonight.”
Nevada led 16-11 at the end of the first quarter, but the game was tied at 26 at halftime after a back and forth second period.
The Pioneers held a 36-31 advantage at the end of the third quarter, but a 3-pointer from Nevada’s Riddick Shook tied the game at 41 late in the contest.
A last-second trey by Nevada was off the mark and the game went into overtime.
Brice Budd and Kellen Braden both hit 3-pointers early in the extra session to give Nevada the lead for good.
Budd scored 14 points to lead Nevada (3-3), while Jack Cheaney added 11 points. Gabe Smith scored nine points, while Braden and Shook each scored eight.
“This win is something we can build on, and we are very pleased with our improvements this week,” Gray said. “Anytime you can go 2-1 in Carthage it’s something we’ll take. We’re looking forward to a good tournament next week at Butler.”
In the tourney’s seventh-place game, Fort Smith Southside defeated the Carthage junior varsity 73-49.
CARTHAGE INVITATIONAL
Thursday’s scores
Raymore-Peculiar 60, Southside 33
Webb City 84, Nevada 51
Joplin 57, Leavenworth 48
Friday’s scores
Nevada 63, Southside 48
Leavenworth 52, Carthage JV 38
Webb City 55, Raymore-Peculiar 51
Carthage 59, Joplin 42
Saturday’s scores
Southside 73, Carthage JV 49 (7th place)
Nevada 52, Leavenworth 43 (5th place)
Raymore-Peculiar 48, Joplin 41 (3rd place)
Carthage 70, Webb City 59 (Title game)
ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM
Justin Ray, Carthage (MVP)
Barron Duda, Webb City
Ashton Jermain, Raymore-Peculiar
Eli Pace, Webb City
Dylan Pugh, Carthage
Cannon Northcraft, Raymore-Peculiar
Collis Jones, Joplin
Jack Cheaney, Nevada
MJ Morgan, Leavenworth
Alex Roper, Southside
