On Friday night, the Cassville Wildcats hosted their annual tip-off festivities and welcomed the Pierce City Eagles in front of a hostile crowd. In a game that featured as many lead changes as momentum swings, the Wildcats with less than minute to go in regulation executed the final swing and defeated the Eagles, 51-47.
"Having been in the situation where we have had the lead late a lot," said Cassville head coach Barrett Milleson on battling back after his team saw a sizable lead diminish in the fourth quarter. "To battle back; a theme we have had all year is mental toughness and dealing with adversity. Collin Pearman fouled out with three minutes left (in the fourth quarter).
"We tried hard to make sure we didn't lose faith as a bench, as a team, and Collin was one of our biggest cheerleaders, supporters over on the bench when he came off the floor. A lot of faith as a team, a lot of faith in each other and I thought the players executed down the stretch; just a whole lot of resiliency to come back there like they did. I'm very proud of the kids."
With Pierce City being able to work the ball around at will as well as maintaining a deliberate pace up the floor, the Eagles off two successful free throws overtook the lead with 1:50 left in the fourth, 47-45. However within a minute, the Wildcats' capitalized on Pierce City's missed free throw opportunities, and Ethan Hoppes found the hot-shooting Noah Hadlow wide open in the corner, who sunk the go-ahead and would-be game-winner to give Cassville their seventh win of the season.
Hadlow finished a point shy of Hoppes' game-high 15 points. Although, the senior guard hit four threes and the last his most significant on the night.
"Ethan got me a good look," said Hadlow. "I just took the three, and it felt good. It felt good coming out of my hand."
Living and dying by the three for much of the game, the Wildcats held the lead for the majority of the contest despite a slow start out of the gates. Other than that, was the long ball a game plan all along?
"When you zone up the way that they do (Pierce City)," said Milleson, "there's going to be some opportunities for outside shots. It's hard to guard all the spots. Credit to Pierce City; they have more length than we do, but neither one of us have a lot of length and a real credit to them for shutting down and take (Collin) Pearman away in the middle early.
"Pretty consistently, I think he had a stretch where he missed quite a bit. It's just a credit to our guards. It's something we have emphasized all year that if somebody zones us up, you have got to have the belief to make it happen."
Also, Milleson added the home crowd played a tremendous role in the team's performance.
"The crowd was unbelievable," said Milleson. "Credit to our students, they worked hard for about a week now; preparing for this night. So proud of the student body. It was just an unbelievable effort by them, and I can tell you I don't think we make through some of those stretches without their energy, especially late. It was very special."
For the Eagles of Pierce City, head coach Matt Street was pleased with the effort level with which his club played. Street thought the crowd didn't phase his team but acknowledged it was one of the loudest crowds they played in.
"I felt like we let a couple in the corner get away from us that we should have closed out on a little quicker," said Street. "You have to give Cassville some credit they hit shots. I haven't got a chance to look at the stat sheet yet, but they hit a lot of threes tonight.
"We got to do a better job of blocking out. They got three offensive rebounds and hit a three on it. You can't let that happen. We know that, and we will try to fix it and bounce back.
"Our home crowds are good about being loud. This was probably one of the louder ones we played in this year. There crowd did a good job. I think their kids and our kids fed on a little bit."
Cassville (7-9) opens Big 8 Conference Play against McDonald County next Monday. Meanwhile, Pierce City (9-9) begins SRVC play at Greenfield on the same night.
Cassville – 11 – 15 – 16 – 9 — 51
Pierce City – 11 – 14 – 11 – 11 — 47
Cassville: Ethan Hoppes 15 points (2 threes, 5-6 FT's), Noah Hadlow 14 points, Tyler Ardnt 8 (5-6 FT's), Allen Lambel 6 points (1 three), Colin Pearman 6 points, Trey Dalton 2
Pierce City: Ian Burt 14 points (2-3 FT's), Mason Moreland 9 points (3 threes), Hunter Tindell 9 points (3-4 FT's) Evan Bunt 7 points (2 threes), Devin Cox 6 points
