By Denise Tucker (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
ROGERSVILLE – On Senior Night, the Rogersville seniors came up big.
Cade Blevins poured in 21 points and Josh Linehan added 11 as the Wildcats ran away with a 54-35 Big 8 East victory over the rival Catholic Fightin’ Irish on Tuesday night.
“It felt really good,” Blevins said of the win. “Everyone was really excited. We all played our butts off and Catholic – they’re a really good team. But, we feel like we outworked them and we got the win.”
The Wildcats, who started an all-senior lineup, opened up the game with an 8-0 run and didn’t allow Catholic to get its offense going, hitting the boards hard and denying many second chances for the Irish.
“We had a different starting five,” Blevins said. “Obviously, we started all seniors, and we weren’t sure how that was going to work out. But, we just played hard and we stuck with it.”
The Wildcats, who improved to 14-7 overall and 3-1 in the Big 8 East, built on that 8-0 run to take a 19-7 lead after the first quarter. And, just as he opened the game, Blevins hit a 3-pointer to start the second quarter.
Catholic (14-8), 3-1) played the Wildcats close in the second quarter, but still trailed going into halftime (31-17).
The Irish, who were coming off a close loss to Jefferson City’s Helias Catholic and a win over Republic, scored on three straight possessions early in the third quarter to pull within 13, but just couldn’t get over the hump.
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“We know we’re better,” Catholic coach Denny Hunt said. “We’re better than what we were tonight. We just failed to execute. They came out hard; they were aggressive. They do a good job, they’re well-coached, they’re a physical basketball team and we didn’t handle it early.”
Coming into the contest, Rogersville coach John Schaefer knew his Wildcats were going to have their hands full against their rival, but wanted to honor his seniors at the same time.
“It’s just a special mix; it’s your seniors,” Schaefer said. “We’ve got five and all of them don’t start, typically. We told them, ‘Look, this is senior night. You give us your best effort and you can play as long as you’re not messing up.’ They got off to a really good start, and so we just stuck with them. That just kind of energized everybody. Everybody was happy for some of those guys that don’t typically play much. And then, we just took it from there.
“I just I think the ability for us to make shots early, we were physical and we did really good job on defense, not giving them second opportunities that they typically get. So, I just thought that we probably played a little harder than them in spurts and that was probably the difference.”
Once Catholic put together its run in the third quarter, Rogersville hit a bit of a drought, but that was short-lived. Zach Bergmann found Blevins who went coast-to-coast for a dunk, which was followed by Kanon Gipson drawing a charge, to put a charge both in the home crowd and in the Wildcats’ offense.
“That energy,” Blevins said, “a dunk, it’s only two points, but in reality, it’s worth six or eight points because it gets the whole team going and everyone’s wanting to play harder and everyone’s wanting to do something. And, Kanon taking that charge just added to it.”
Even though Tuesday night’s outcome was a bit one-sided, Hunt was proud of the Irish’s effort.
“You dig a hole that big, it’s hard to get out of it,” Hunt said. “We’ve got great kids. They really did play hard and they gave it all they had; they do that every night, so I really can’t complain. We’re just going to go on, and go to the next one.”
ROGERSVILLE 54, CATHOLIC 35
CATHOLIC 7-10-10-8—35
ROGERSVILLE 19-12-12-11—54
CATHOLIC (14-8, 3-1) – Liam O’Reilly 8, Zach Howell 13, Will Squibb 3, Will Morrison 7, Ben Galligos 2, John David Bigler 2.
ROGERSVILLE (14-7, 3-1) – Cade Blevins 21, Josh Linehan 12, Andrew Sell 5, Sam Engelmeyer 9, Zach Bergmann 2, Jordan Williams 1, Kanon Gipson 2, Ty DeLap 2.
Rogersville B 43, Catholic B 38 (OT)
Catholic freshman 36, Rogersville freshman 34
