Joplin jumped out to a 10-6 lead after the first quarter, fell behind double digits early in the second half after a brutal second quarter in which they scored only two points, and rallied back late in regulation to force overtime tied at 42 before the Eagles ultimately earned a 52-46 win over visiting Springfield Central after scoring the game’s final seven points on Wednesday inside Kaminsky Gymnasium.
“We had a team meeting this week and we just talked about the difference between skill and will,” Joplin coach Brad Cox said. “We understand that we’re not the most skilled team, but if we play with will and great effort then we can compete with anybody. I just told them that’s all we have to do, go out there and play with the will that’s in your heart.
“That’s what they did. I am super proud of the girls. It’s been a long season. They’ve played hard in every game, no matter whether we were down 50 or up 20, we played hard every second. I couldn’t be prouder of our girls.”
Central headed into halftime with a 20-12 advantage produced from a 14-2 second quarter during which freshman Alissa Owens made Joplin’s lone field goal at the 4-minute, 30-second mark. The Bulldogs’ first basket of the second half gave them a double-digit lead.
Joplin matched Central in the third quarter with 12 points and entered the fourth trailing 32-24.
The Eagles made up that eight-point deficit with a 18-10 advantage in the fourth, and three made free throws late from Bailey Ledford and Riley Kelly secured the 42-all score.
“There’s no quit in these girls,” Cox said. “That’s one thing you see from Izzy Yust, Jill McDaniel, and Serafina (Auberry), our seniors. You never see our team get too high or too low, and I contribute that to our seniors doing that and trying to keep our team calm and being great teammates this week. That’s what they came out and did tonight.”
Joplin made enough free throws at the end of regulation to force overtime and then took control in overtime, while Central missed three straight front ends of 1-and-1s within the final 23.6 seconds of regulation.
“We talked about all year, for us to be one of the premier programs in this area, we have to start doing all the little things right and if we do all the little things right it adds up to wins,” Cox said. “We did the little things right tonight. We haven’t done them all right part of the year, but we’re getting better at doing the little things right and hoping it translates into more wins.”
Ledford scored a game-high 17 points and sparked the Eagles’ comeback with 15 of her points in the second half and then overtime.
Yust finished with nine points, Owens added eight, Auberry had seven, Kelly tallied four, Libby Munn hit a trifecta for her three points, and McDaniel and Ashley Phillips each had two points.
Joplin improved to 4-17 overall and the Eagles are back in action on their home court Friday night against Central Ozark Conference foe Willard.
Talia Dyson and Desteny Pierce each led Central with 15 points. The Bulldogs dropped to 1-16 on the season.
