By Brennan Stebbins (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
The Joplin basketball team entered the weekend seeking its first Kaminsky Classic championship since 2001.
The Eagles will have to keep waiting.
Visiting Webb City shook off a halftime deficit and outscored Joplin by 15 points in the third quarter en route to a 66-55 win on Saturday afternoon inside Kaminsky Gymnasium.
It’s Webb City’s first-ever championship at the tournament, according to the Joplin Sports Authority.
“It’s big for our program,” Cardinals coach Jason Horn said. “It’s been a long time since we’ve been able to win in a tournament during the regular season. I thought our kids showed a lot of composure. They were able to finish off that game when shots weren’t falling for us. Really proud of their effort defensively and the way they rebounded the basketball. It was a really good team effort.”
The Cardinals, ranked 8th in Class 5, downed Clever 75-43 on Wednesday and beat Class 5 No. 10 Nevada 65-55 on Thursday.
The first half on Saturday couldn’t have ended much worse for Webb City, though.
A basket by Cardinals sophomore Alex Martin made it 23-16 with 4:24 left in the second quarter, but that was Webb City’s last score of the half. The Eagles then scored 15 straight to finish the quarter, a run that included two three pointers by freshman All Wright and a basket at the buzzer by senior Malik Williams.
Joplin led 31-23 at the half.
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The advantage grew to nine points a minute into the third quarter on another three pointer by All Wright. Older brother Always Wright, a junior, made a deep three a minute later to make it 37-29.
After that it was all Webb City.
The Cardinals answered with 13 straight points, part of a larger 22-4 run that gave Webb City a seven-point lead by the end of the third quarter and a 51-41 advantage with six minutes left in the game.
Horn said he told his players at halftime to stay composed and play through their mistakes.
“Sometimes shots aren’t going to fall,” he said. “We had to stay solid defensively and I thought we did a good job of that. Second half our defense led to some offense for us and again that’s a mark of a good team and a senior-led team. Our juniors and seniors really stepped up there and they kept composed. A lot of teams might struggle in that situation but these guys, they’ve been through a lot of tough games, a lot of tight games and I’m just proud of their effort.”
Webb City shot just 29 percent from the floor in the first half but made 15-of-27 attempts in the second half, good for 56 percent.
Joplin was able to stay within single digits for much of the fourth quarter until Webb City senior Trenton Hayes scored at the 4:18 mark to make it an 11-point game. That keyed another Webb City run, this time 12-3, that saw the Cardinals lead by as many as 18 points after a three-point play by junior Kaden Turner made it 65-47.
The Cardinals scored on eight of their first nine possessions of the fourth.
Joplin, meanwhile, saw its offense go cold in the second half. The Eagles shot 41 percent in the first half but just 28 percent (7-of-25) in the second. And after making five three pointers in the first two quarters on 5-of-12 shooting, Joplin managed just two in the second half and missed all eight three-point shots in the fourth quarter.
“It’s really a game of toughness for us,” Joplin coach Jeff Hafer said. “Webb City’s a really good team. They were a little tougher than us tonight. Offensively we struggled a little bit and they had a lot to do with that, just making it hard on us to get into some things and we didn’t execute very well.”
Hafer said the Cardinals “beat us up” in 1-on-1 situations and also on the boards. Webb City outrebounded Joplin 44-34 and outscored the Eagles 36-18 in the paint.
“We’ve got to be able to defend and rebound and Webb City’s good at that,” Hafer said. “They’re well balanced. They’ve got really good guards and they’ve got guys who play their roles really well and Jason does a good job putting them in really good positions to be successful.”
Webb City had three players score in double figures. Luke Brumit, a 6-foot-4 junior, scored 13 points to go along with nine rebounds. Senior Mekhi Garrard scored 12 points and added eight rebounds, four assists and five steals in just 18 minutes. Martin also scored 12.
Senior Nickhai Howard and Junior Cohl Vaden each scored eight points and grabbed eight rebounds.
Joplin’s All Wright scored 19 points, Always Wright scored 12 and sophomore Dante Washington finished with 11.
Junior Landen “LT” Atherton led the team with seven rebounds, and senior Dominick Simmons contributed four assists and a steal.
The two teams will meet again on Tuesday night at Webb City.
“It’s a good opportunity to see what we can fix and see if we can go over and compete,” Hafer said.
All-tournament team
Mekhi Garrard, Webb City
Nickhai Howard, Webb City
Always Wright, Joplin
All Wright, Joplin
Bryce Gelle, Clever
Logan McNeley, Nevada
Logan Applegate, Nevada
Dayne Herl, William Chrisman
