By Tyler Thompson (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
The lower bowl at JQH Arena was nearly full capacity Saturday evening as the sixth-seeded Logan-Rogersville Wildcats and the second-seeded Nixa Eagles went to-to-toe in the Blue Division semifinals.
The game did not disappoint, as Rogersville senior Cade Blevins secured the win with his inbounds tip-in as time expired, guiding their team to the come-from-behind 43-42 win.
“It was going back and forth,” Blevins said. “Both teams are tough teams and play hard. I felt like our defense was pretty good. To be specific, they were on me all night, and it was just a tough game.”
As for the winning shot, Blevins said he had an uneasy feeling when the leather left his hands.
Said Blevins: “That specific shot wasn’t even what we were going for. We were going for a lob, or something like catching it above. I had a guy face-guarding me and he knew where I was going and he happened to overplay me just a little bit. I used my (off) arm to hold him back a bit and get that tip off one-handed. I thought I missed, to be honest. And then the emotions flooded in.”
The Wildcats — who won the Gold Division last year— now prepare for a potent, disciplined Hartville Eagles team (four seed) at Monday’s championship game at 7 p.m. at JQH Arena.
CLICK HERE FOR PHOTOS OF THE GAME
The title game has a bit more juicy storylines to it as Rogersville head coach Jason Schaefer is a Hartville alum.
Added Blevins: “I hadn’t seen them play this year at all until they played against Willard. I expected Willard to win. They are a tough team. Hartville, they play really hard. They have good, smart players. It is going to be fun playing against them.”
As for Schaefer, he said the deep character and resolve of his Wildcats proved to be the deciding factor — especially given the man-zone defense Nixa coach Jay Osborne instituted to try and throw a wrench into the Wildcats’ spokes.
“The whole game was a grind,” Schaefer said. “We just felt like we couldn’t run anything all game. You just cross your fingers you can make a few baskets.”
Nixa’s defense was tough to navigate throughout the game: a credit to the patience and resolve of his Wildcats, who took full advantage of clock stoppage and missed opportunities from the charity stripe down the stretch to pull off the upset over an opponent with 10 championships to date.
“The pressure was on,” said Blevins. “We were just fighting tooth-and-nail. Pressure is a deal-breaker. We just had to push through and get back to what we value: working hard, playing hard, and make it through.”
After Kanon Gipson (11 points) connected for the 3-pointer, the defense to which Blevins alluded, stood firm and forced the Nixa turnover.
Schaefer immediately called the timeout.
Nixa’s Josh Mason went 0-for-1 from the line before fouling out on the rebound attempt.
Rogersville turned it over on the long inbounds that stretched three-quarters of the floor, as Eagles’ Evann Long came up with the errant pass, sending Long to the line.
Long also went 0-for-1 from the charity stripe and the Wildcats had what they wanted: the ball.
With .06 seconds remaining, Gipson inbounded the ball to Blevins and, as the adage states, the rest is history.
“Nixa missed a few free throws and gave us a chance. It is tough. The guys have to step up,” Schaefer said of his offense, which was led by Josh Linehan’s 12-point performance.
The back-and-forth affair was as warm as the recent Christmas heat wave, as Nixa led 10-7 after the opening quarter and extended it to 22-21 at half.
Then the Wildcats came out and asserted themselves in the high post, the low post, and exhibiting textbook inside-out ball.
“Yeah, we have been working on that a lot at practice, trying to get inside,” said Blevins. “There is a lot of help, so when we get it inside, it is really just ball movement, and we really didn’t do that to start the game. Once we started doing that more and more in the second half, we were coming back and able to stay with them the whole time.”
Scoring:
Rogersville:
7 14 9 12
Linehan (12), Gipson (11), Blevins (8), Bergmann (6), O’Neill (6).
Nixa:
10 12 16 4
Josh Mason led the team with 9 points and TJ Sorgenfrei added 8 points.
