Willard scorched the nets from the perimeter in the second half to rally back from a first-half deficit on the way to a 67-48 Central Ozark Conference win over Joplin on Friday.
The Eagles (7-14, 0-6 COC) started the game with all of the momentum, using a stingy defense to limit quality looks for the Tigers on the way to a 32-28 lead by the break. Willard (19-2, 6-1 COC) found its stroke beyond the arc in the second half, sinking 10 3-pointers as a team to fuel the rally while building an insurmountable cushion in the process.
“I told those girls I will take that team and that effort playing anybody in the state and at any time,” Joplin coach Luke Floyd said about his team’s performance against Willard. “Similar to the Nixa game, we just came out and played hard. If we can play hard consistently, we’re going to have our chances.”
GAME ACTION
Joplin couldn’t have asked for a better start, scoring the game’s first 11 points over the initial three-plus minutes of action. Brooke Nice opened the game with a 3-pointer and after a Jacie Jensen basket inside, Brynn Driver drilled a 3-ball to make the score 8-0. Lily Pagan closed the run with a score on the drive.
“Bringing out the defense helped,” Floyd said of his team’s start. “We were able to get rebounds, get outlets and push the pace down the floor. Against their press early on, I thought we did a good job of passing over the top of their defense.”
Just as quickly as the Eagles built the double digit lead, the Tigers took it away after answering with the next 13 points to close out the opening period. Carolina Crawford started the counter attack with a 3-pointer before Kailyn Washington came up with a steal and a fast-break score. Brielle Adamson scored the final eight points of the run, knocking down two shots from the perimeter to go along with a bucket on the drive to give Willard a 13-11 advantage by time the dust settled in the first quarter.
“They move the ball so well,” Floyd said of Willard’s run to end the period. “They always know where everyone is at and are ready to shoot when the ball hits their hands. They are just a great team. … You can tell they are very unselfish.”
A back-and-forth start to the second period saw Joplin take the first momentum swing with a six-point run, highlighted by a 3-pointer from Driver and a Nice driving score to give the Eagles a 24-19 lead midway through the quarter.
Nice pushed the lead to seven, 32-25, with 1:05 to play in the first half after sinking a triple from the corner off the inbounds pass. Washington answered with a trey of her own at the other end before the close of the first half to trim Joplin’s lead to 32-28 at the intermission.
“To give up the lead (to close the first quarter) and then to keep battling and take the lead into halftime was huge,” Floyd said. “It says a lot about our girls to not get down on themselves. We preach one possession at a time, and I thought we did a really good job of responding to everything they threw at us.”
Willard started the third quarter on a 16-4 run to regain the lead and make the score 45-36. Much of that damage was done from the perimeter, with the Tigers connecting on four triples—two from Adamson and two from Ariana Patillo.
Joplin answered with six straight points, including a score on the drive from Serafina Auberry and an old-fashioned three-point play by Nice to trim the margin to 45-42, but Patillo knocked down two more 3-balls to close out the third quarter, including a deep trey from the wing at the buzzer, to send the Tigers into the final period with a 51-42 advantage.
“With any team, once you get a few to go down, the bucket just gets bigger and bigger,” Floyd said. “I thought we still really had a chance until (Patillo) hit that 3-pointer at the end of the quarter. We played a great defensive possession up until the last second, and she made a 26-foot shot. I told the girls that sometimes you just get beat by good offense. That was a good shot to beat really good defense.”
Joplin opened the fourth with a basket from Izzy Yust before Willard, which hit 14 3-pointers as a team in the win, used a 10-0 surge to push the lead to 61-44, putting the game out of reach. Adamson hit a 3-ball to start the run and scored the next four points before Patillo knocked down another 3-pointer to close the game-sealing spurt.
SCORING LEADERS
Driver and Nice each led Joplin with 15 points each. Six other Eagles finished with a field goal in the win.
Adamson led Willard with a game-high 25 points, including five 3-pointers. Patillo also sank five 3-pointers on the way to 15 points. Washington added 10.
DISTRICT UPDATE
Joplin holds the fourth seed in the Class 6 District 12 tournament. The Eagles will travel to top-seeded Kickapoo at 7 p.m. on March 1.
UP NEXT
Joplin hosts Carl Junction at 11 a.m. on Saturday.
