With a healthy lineup, a hostile environment and a ridiculously loud student section, Rogersville had almost everything it needed to spring the Friday-night trap on visiting Ozark.
Almost.
What Rogersville lacked was an answer for Collin Bottoms, who fueled Ozark's devastating inside game en route to a 62-48 victory.
The 6'6" senior scored a team-high 17 points, opened up the floor for balanced scoring from his teammates and helped Ozark control the paint at both ends.
Tigers head coach Mark Schweitzer made it a point to get the ball to Bottoms after the big man received limited touches during a 65-63 loss at Webb City on Tuesday.
"We knew that we needed to get him the ball inside," Schweitzer said. "Over at the game we dropped at Webb City, he only shot it one time, and if he's only going to shoot it one time, we might as well write a loss down and move on to the next game. He's too big a part of what we do and needs to be more aggressive, and our guards need to do a better job of getting him the ball. As you can tell, that was the focus tonight, and they did a great job."
When the ball wasn't going inside, fellow senior Riley Simmons was dropping shots from the outside for 15 points of his own. Simmons hit a pair of 3-pointers early on and was a perfect 5-5 from the free-throw line in the fourth quarter.
Wildly efficient from the floor, Simmons was a quiet assassin for the Tigers, curling off screens for layups and uncontested shots from the outside.
"We really focused on cutting hard in practice this week," Simmons said. "Cutting hard, setting good screens and rubbing our screens … a lot of it is because of that and that goes on coach."
As a third cog in Ozark's balanced attack, Bottoms and Simmons were also joined in double figures by sophomore Quinn Nelson's 10 points.
As important as the balanced scoring line was for the Tigers, they needed a defensive answer of their own, as well.
The two teams faced off earlier this season in the Republic Tournament quarterfinals under different circumstances. While Ozark took moved on with a 66-59 victory, some key factors stuck out to Schweitzer.
Despite playing without two key starters in Marcus Gorman and Evan Whetstone, the Wildcats held the lead nearly the entire game. Playing short-handed, Rogersville scoring phenom Christian Brown still managed to torch the Tigers for 25 points that night.
In Friday's rematch, Brown once again was the game's leading scorer; however, nothing was given this time around. Thanks to defensive pressure from Simmons, Rogersville's senior guard had to work for each of his 18 points.
"I thought we did an excellent job on [Brown]," Schweitzer said. "I don't know how many he had, but it wasn't 25 like the last time, and the shots that he did hit were all tough shots. He was highly-guarded, highly-contested the whole night, and that was Riley Simmons doing that."
For Rogersville head coach Rod Gorman, the season continues to be a work in progress. While the Wildcats continue to work returning starters back into the lineup after being out most of the season, Rogersville's grueling schedule doesn't exactly get any easier at this point with Branson, Waynesville and Republic waiting down the road.
"We don't have enough characteristics of what good basketball teams have to be successful," Gorman said. "There are three or four areas out there … offense, defense, rebounding and out-of-bounds plays. You've got to be good in all those areas, and I would not call us good in any of those areas at this point. We've got to strive to be better for sure."
Ozark (12-5) plays Saturday in the Scoreboard Guy shootout at home against Poplar Bluff, while Rogersville (3-10) hosts Branson on Tuesday.
Ozark – 62, Rogersville – 48
Ozark 7 20 15 20 — 62
Rogersville 6 12 14 16 — 48
Ozark Scoring: Collin Bottoms – 17, Riley Simmons – 15, Quinn Nelson – 10, Clayton Engel – 9, Kyland Hewett-Newbill – 7, Peyton Osborn – 4, Curt Gracey – 1
Rogersville Scoring: Christian Brown – 18, Marcus Gorman – 12, Matt McHenry – 8, Andrew Scott – 4, Evan Whetstone – 4, Jake Crosby – 2
Frosh score: Ozark – 56, Rogersville – 31
JV score: Ozark – 74, Rogersville – 55
