If you were worried about Kickapoo suffering a Tournament of Champions hangover after losing back-to-back games, its first two losses of the season, then don’t be.
The Class 5 No. 5 Chiefs continued an impressive two-week run on Saturday, knocking off their third state-ranked team in their last four games with a 93-78 win over Class 3 No. 2 Barstow Saturday at Ozark High School.
Photos: Kickapoo vs. Barstow – CLICK HERE FOR PHOTOS
Barstow isn’t you average Class 3 team.
The Knights, the defending Class 3 state champs, are led by 6-foot-7 senior Nebraska recruit Jeriah Horne, 6-foot-6 classmate Shea Rush (the son of former UCLA great JaRon Rush) and junior guard Jacob Gilyard. Gilyard holds offers from UMKC and UAB, among others.
“We beat a very good team today and that’s always nice; it gives your guys some confidence,” said Kickapoo coach Dick Rippee. “Sometimes the Tournament of Champions can mess with your head a little bit if you let it. I thought our guys have bounced back with a win over Nixa and this win; Barstow just knows how to win. That’s the biggest compliment you can give another team, they just know how to win. We were able to make enough plays to get the win and we’re proud of our guys.”
After flexing its muscles defensively in last week’s win over Nixa, Kickapoo put on an offensive clinic with a season-high 93 points. It is the 14th time this season Kickapoo has scored at least 70 points.
The Chiefs jumped out to an early 22-13 lead late in the first quarter behind eight points from junior guard Cam Davis, which was important for Rippee after seeing Barstow routinely blitz opponents with early leads and forcing them to play catchup.
The Knights responded with a 12-2 run to grab a 25-24 lead early in the second quarter behind a huge effort from Rush, who scored 12 of his 14 points in the first half. Kickapoo took a 43-39 lead into the half on Jared Ridder’s 3 just before the halftime horn. He scored 15 of his team-high 25 points in the first half.
“It’s difficult to guard us because you can’t take everything away,” said Rippee. “You try to stop Jared and it opens up stuff for some other guys. Our guys do a great job of finding Jared, but they’re also doing a better job of playing off of him, setting screens for him, making their defender help off and then it opens them up. It also opens up our straight line drives. Our guys are getting better and learning how to play with each other and those four played great for us.”
A 16-8 spurt to start the third quarter, capped by Isaac Johnson’s conventional 3-point play, gave Kickapoo a 59-47 lead midway through the frame. Johnson’s pull-up jumper just before the end of the quarter gave Kickapoo a 70-60 lead entering the fourth quarter.
Barstow made one final run at the Chiefs, scoring 13 of the first 21 points to start the fourth quarter and cutting Kickapoo’s lead to five, 78-73, led by Horne.
“We had a hard time matching up with him,” said Rippee. “He’s very heady, has good post moves, good feet and he also hurt us from the outside. He’s bigger than Jared but he’s similar because he can get you inside or outside. He was really good today.”
Kickapoo received a boost to halt Barstow’s rally in the form of Hayden Schmitz.
Much like the win over Bolivar, Schmitz not only stretched the floor for the Chiefs, but provided a presence on the offensive glass which gave Kickapoo several extra possessions.
Schmitz tip-in while falling down helped stop a 9-3 Barstow run and jump started an 11-5 Kickapoo spurt that helped put Barstow away for good.
“Hayden was huge,” said Rippee. “Their big wasn’t guarding our posts so we put Hayden in and he hit a few shots and forced him to get out of the late which opened things up for our guys to get to the rim. The guys are all rooting for him because he’s accepted his role and takes advantage of his minutes and earning more. He gave us a huge lift; he was very aggressive and made some big plays for us. I’m proud of him.”
In addition to Ridder’s 25 points, Cam Davis added 20, while seniors Johnson and Niekie Thomas-Fontleroy added 18 and 17 respectively. Kickapoo scored at least 21 points in each quarter.
Horne finished with 27 points for Barstow, while Gilyard scored 24 and Rush chipped in 14.
Kickapoo has now won four straight since those two losses and will finish the season in Ozark Conference play before the season-finale at Columbia Hickman.
While Kickapoo didn’t quite have the showing that they wanted at the Tournament of Champions, Ridder believes it has made the Chiefs better and has them back on track to their ultimate goal; a trip to Columbia and the Final Four.
“We just really focused on not letting that drag us down and move onto the next day,” said Ridder. “We really wanted to win more games in the TOC but we didn't let that hurt us. We just wanted to come out and play hard and play as a team. We didn't have our best practices going into the TOC so I think it helped us refocus and helped us realize we need to work hard every day to reach our main goal.”
