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By Dana Harding (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
Springfield, Mo. — Last season, Rogersville ran through the Blue & Gold tournament and captured a title as a six seed.
After upsetting No. 3 Bolivar 50-43 on Friday, the No. 6 Wildcats hope lightning can strike twice.
“Last year, we felt like we got kind of slighted,” Rogersville head coach John Schaefer said. “This year, we were proud to get the six seed, because we had one win [prior to seeding]. I know how much fun they had last year, and they want to defend the title. Three of them started on last year’s team, so that’s a big deal — they’ve been here, and they understand it.”
Something else Rogersville understands?
Grinding out wins from the free throw line.
The Wildcats converted 18 of 22 free throws — 8 of 10 in the fourth quarter, alone — to help turn back a late Bolivar rally.
With just over four minutes to play, Liberator senior guard Hunter Berry connected on back-to-back 3-pointers to tie the game at 40-40.
While Rogersville got a quick score from Zach Bergmann to recapture the lead at 42-40, it would also mark the team’s final basket of the game with 2:43 still to play.
“I was crossing my fingers and hoping that we would get fouled so we could figure out how to score,” Schaefer said. “Our team usually shoots free throws pretty well and, in those games, that’s the difference.”
Kanon Gipson scored 16 points to lead Rogersville, 9 of which were free throws.
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The 6-foot-1 junior credited constant repetition for his team’s success at the line in pressure situations.
“We shoot free throws about 20 minutes each day,” Gipson said. “It’s just a routine of ours. Free throws are free — it’s point-blank, and they’re very easy.”
The first half featured 11 lead changes until a Gipson 3-pointer sparked a 5-0 Rogersville run to close the half.
Bolivar remained within striking distance, thanks to its inside-out combo of Berry and freshman Kyle Pock, who combined for 33 points on the afternoon.
Berry’s game-high 17 points included five 3-pointers.
For Schaefer, a solid four quarters of defense against the dangerous Bolivar squad was vital for Rogersville to have a chance at the win.
“[Bolivar] is hard to guard, and you’ve got to fly around, really dig in and want to play defense to guard them,” Schaefer said. “If you don’t want to, they’ll embarrass you. There’s a reason they’re 9-1.”
Fast and athletic, Bolivar also knows a thing or two about defense and relied on full-court pressure for much of the second half.
While Gipson serves as Rogersville’s primary ball-handler, the Wildcats opted to have the 6-foot-3 Bergmann bring the ball up as both a matchup change-of-pace and to offer a breather at times.
“I just felt like Zach could handle the ball well enough, and that it would take a lot of pressure off our guards,” Schaefer said. “We don’t sub a lot, so there’s a lot of fatigue — it wears on you. Your guys with the basketball in their hands all the time, it affects their shooting. So, we said ‘Zach, you’re tough enough to handle this. You can bring it down.’”
Rogersville (4-4) now moves on to Saturday’s Blue Division semifinal against No. 2 Nixa, while Bolivar (9-1) heads to the fifth-place bracket to face Crane.
Blue Division Quarterfinal: Rogersville – 50, Bolivar – 43
Bolivar 11 12 05 15 — 43
Rogersville 10 17 07 16 — 50
Bolivar scoring: Hunter Berry – 17, Kyle Pock – 17, Brodie Pollock – 6, Cooper Bushey – 3
Rogersville scoring: Kanon Gipson – 16, Cade Blevins – 15, Zach Bergmann – 9, Josh Linehan – 5, JJ O’Neil – 5
