After suffering a loss to Francis Howell in the semifinals on Friday night, Joplin rerbounded for a 66-60 win over Poplar Bluff in the Kaminsky Classic third-place game on Saturday inside Kaminsky Gymnasium.
The Eagles (7-4), who never trailed and played shorthanded without forward Terrance Gibson after he missed the game due to illness, took a slim lead into the second quarter before using large scoring runs to open the second and third quarters to build a double-digit cushion that reached as much as 20 points in the second half. The Mules (6-6) cut the lead to six in the fourth quarter, but would get no closer by the final horn.
“We played three quarters of good-enough basketball and then just got sloppy,” Joplin coach Bronson Schaake said about the win. “I think we shot 8-of-18 from the free-throw line and missed some bunnies here and there, but we just didn’t close in the fourth like we needed to and they made it a ball game. We got it to 20 at one point, which I thought we’d push it out, but then they cut it to six. We have to close better than we did. I don’t think we guarded well, particularly in that fourth quarter. We got tired. But, after last night, it was good to see them bounce back.”
GAME ACTION
After taking a 9-6 lead into the second quarter, Joplin opened the second period on a 13-0 run to take a 22-6 lead after keeping the Mules off the scoreboard for nearly the entire first half of the quarter.
“That’s who we are,” Schaake said. “We play in spurts like that. Now, we just have to figure out that next step of closing things out a little better. That was good going into halftime with that lead. It was good momentum.”
On the offensive end, the Eagles used 3-pointers from All Wright and Grayden Cravens to push the lead to 15-6. After a steal from Quin Renfro turned into a mid-range bucket from Cooper Williams, Whit Hafer grabbed a defensive board and found Wright on the outlet, with Wright flushing home a one-handed dunk and drawing contact in the process for a three-point play. Williams closed the run with an offensive rebound and a mid-range jumper for a 16-point cushion.
“He is doing a great job even on our press break,” Schaake said about Hafer’s performance with Gibson sidelined. “He is under control and is looking over the defense. He is getting more and more calmer, in a sense. The game is slowing down for him. He can shoot the mid-rae and the 3. He had a dunk tonight where he relocated himself really well. He is getting better and better each game.”
Poplar Bluff, which shot just 31 percent from the field in the first two quarters, whittled the lead to 11 by the intermission, 29-18, after closing the second period on an 8-3 surge with all four baskets coming in the paint.
The Eagles nearly copied and pasted their fast start from the second quarter to start the second half, surging out on a 14-4 run to build a 20-point lead, 42-22, with a little over four minutes left on the clock.
“We always preach that the first two minutes of the second half are the most-important minutes of the game,” Schaake said. “We came out and got stops and kept building on that. We need to find a way to carry that into the fourth quarter.”
Hafer started the scoring with an inside bucket before Wright grabbed an offensive rebound for a putback, knocked down a mid-range jumper and drew contact after converting on a floater in the lane. The and-1 attempt was no good, but Hobbs Gooch grabbed the rebound and put it back up for a bucket to make the score 39-20 with 5:25 on the clock. Wright closed the run with a deep 3-ball from the wing.
“They were all over him and he’s gotten hammered quite a bit in this tournament,” Schaake said of Wright’s performance. “He’s getting trapped and is going to draw contact. I thought he fought through fatigue. Playing that much basketball in three days, he just fought through it. He keeps going. I don’t know how he does it, but he’s our guy so we expect it from him.”
Joplin ultimately took a 13-point lead into the final eight minutes of action, but Poplar Bluff cut the lead to single digits early in the fourth quarter after a common foul call led to a technical foul on the Eagles and three converted free throws by the Mules to makes the score 54-46 with 5:43 left in regulation.
The Mules got as close as six to the lead on a pair of free throws by Isaiah Nevel with 1:42 left, but Wright helped ice the win for Joplin after converting in the lane on the next trip and adding two free throws with 55 seconds left to push the lead back out to 10, 62-52.
STAT LEADERS
Joplin shot 48 percent from the field as a team (27-for-56) and limited Poplar Bluff to 36 percent shooting (20-for-56). Joplin won the rebound battle 41-33 and held the advantage in second-chance points, 17-7.
Wright led all scorers with a game-high 32 points on 11-of-20 shooting, including 7-of-12 from the free-throw line. He made three 3-pointers, had three rebounds, three assists, two blocks and two steals. Renfro was 5-of-11 shooting for 10 points, five rebounds and four assists. Hafer closed the game with a game-high 16 rebounds, 12 on the offensive end, and added eight points, three assists and a steal.
Gavin Rivers had 22 points, four rebounds and two assists in the loss for Poplar Bluff. Torrence Williams had eight points and six rebounds.
UP NEXT
Joplin is at Carthage on Tuesday as part of a doubleheader.
