By John Miller
Springfield, MO – It was one of the rare occasions when the locker room of the winning team felt like the losing locker room instead.
Moments after Gold Division top-seed Nixa’s 70-61 win over Greenwood in the quarterfinal round of the Blue and Gold Tournament on Tuesday night at JQH Arena, smiles and laughter weren’t found as the Nixa players left their locker room.
They weren’t pleased with their effort, and neither was their head coach.
“I thought late in the third quarter, we looked over and saw we were up 25 and shut it down,” Nixa coach Jay Osborne said. “I haven’t had a team do that in a long, long time. We struggled passing, catching, pivoting. Pretty ugly.
“On behalf of our program I want to apologize to the people that paid money to watch that. That’s not Nixa basketball. We’ll try to get things corrected.”
Christian Bundy had 25 points and 15 rebounds to lead the Eagles, who also got 11 points from Austin Bracker. Julius Walker had 28 points and eight rebounds for Greenwood, while Tony Brandt added 13 and Joseph Brock scored 12.
Nixa built a 55-30 lead with 3:08 remaining in the third period. That’s when Greenwood made its run. The Blue Jays outscored Nixa 10-2 the rest of the period and got as close as seven points in the fourth (66-59) with 1:38 to play before the Eagles put them away.
“Give Greenwood credit,” Osborne said. “We stopped playing and they didn’t. They made some shots, went on a little run. Momentum is a huge thing in this game. You can’t allow someone to gain that momentum back and we allowed it, so I’m real disappointed in that.
“Greenwood played well. I thought we just got real passive and we’ll have to learn from it.”
Greenwood (9-2) jumped in front 8-2 out of the gates on Tuesday thanks to the play of Walker, who scored his team’s first eight points. The Jays stayed close until midway through the second frame, when Nixa made its run. Leading 20-17, the Eagles put together a 16-2 rally, quickly blowing the game open.
They outscored Greenwood 17-7 to begin the third, building the lead to 25 points until the Blue Jays chipped away and got back in it.
“I was extremely proud of our kids today,” Greenwood coach Darin Taylor said. “There was an opportunity for them not to stay interested at one point, and instead, they fought back and made a basketball game out of it.
“I know we’re the smallest school and they’re possibly the largest school in the tournament. Hopefully this will give us a little bit of confidence going forward, knowing that we can play in big games.”
Nixa will now meet either No. 4 seed Ozark or No. 5-seed Fair Grove in the Gold Division semifinals on Wednesday night at 7 p.m. A win there would send the Eagles to their ninth consecutive Blue and Gold championship game.
“I think we’ll play a little better (Wednesday),” Osborne said. “I can’t see us playing much more apathetic than we did in the fourth quarter. We’ll have to bring a better game (Wednesday).”
Nixa 70, Greenwood 61
Nixa 18 20 19 13 70
Greenwood 13 10 17 21 61
Nixa: Bundy 25, Bracker 11, Bergmann 9, Viebrok 8, Combs 7, Canady 5, Elmer 5
Greenwood: Walker 28, Brandt 13, Brock 12, Bergen 8
