[wpbvideo id=”853979″]
By Denise Tucker (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
NIXA – With the game tied at 62 and about 10 seconds to play in overtime, Kickapoo’s Anton Brookshire stole the ball at Nixa’s end of the floor and took it the other way to score the game winner to give the Chiefs’ a 64-62 victory over the Nixa Eagles on Tuesday night.
Brookshire had tied the game 62-62 on a drive through the lane and was fouled with 32.5 seconds to go. He had a chance to give the Chiefs the lead, but missed the free throw. Nixa rebounded the miss and was heading toward its basket when Brookshire stole the ball, going coast to coast to lift Kickapoo to the nonconference win.
“First of all, I want to thank my teammates because without them I don’t think I would be excited in how much confidence I had,” Brookshire said. “I’d like to thank them for just keeping me in the game after missing a big free throw, telling me I got it; just keep motivating me.
“Coming down to hitting those big shots for my teammates, I feel like that was big-time for me and my teammates. As a whole, this game meant a lot to us. I feel like we prepared a lot and I just felt like we grinded, we battled, we came out and just stuck together. I feel like we deserved this one.”
Tuesday night’s game was a matchup of two of the Top 5 programs in Class 6 – Kickapoo ranked third and Nixa fifth – and the game lived up to the hype.
Kickapoo, which improved to 9-2 on the season, got off to a hot start, jumping out to a 17-5 lead midway through the first quarter. But, Nixa finished the quarter on an 8-0 run to pull within 20-15.
The Chiefs held its five-point lead throughout the second quarter, then scored the final four points, capped by Mitchell Kellogg’s bucket at the halftime buzzer for a 35-26 Kickapoo lead.
CLICK HERE FOR PHOTOS OF THE GAME
But, the Eagles (11-2) battled back in the second half outscoring Kickapoo 30-21 to force the overtime with the game tied at 56.
Nixa sophomore Kael Combs hit a 3-pointer from the baseline a minute into overtime to give the Eagles their first lead of the game at 59-56. Isaac Haney, who led the Chiefs with 19 points, hit two free throws to pull Kickapoo within 59-58 before Colin Ruffin answered with two of his own for Nixa (61-58). Combs, who led Nixa with 19 points, added another free throw to give the Eagles a four-point lead (62-58) with just under two minutes to go.
That is when Brookshire took over, scoring the Chiefs’ final six points to give them the 64-62 win.
“My mentality was, you know, just stick together,” said Brookshire, who scored 16 points as he continues to move up the Springfield Public Schools’ scoring list. “If we stick together and we just keep grinding, I feel like everything would come along – just us being in a situation and us being able to grind and fight. I know that we’re doing great things.
“As far as this team in general, I feel we have a lot of great guys. We have a lot of seniors that had a lot of experience. So down the stretch, all we kept saying to each other was just get together, believe in each other. We trusted each other, kept fighting together and came up all right.”
The Chiefs were coming off the Springfield Winter Classic in which they played three games in three days (Thursday-Saturday). But, Kickapoo coach Mitch McHenry is happy his team is getting to play – and getting to play at a high level – in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I think anytime we beat Nixa it’s a big win, no matter where it’s at in the year,” McHenry said. “They’re always one of the top teams in southwest Missouri. We always know it’s a battle and that’s what it was tonight. We knew it was going to be a four-quarter battle – or four-and-a-half.
“We told our kids, we usually go through something similar like this tough of a stretch. The beginning of January, we’ll replay several games, and in a short amount of time against high-quality opponents. We had this kind of stretch marked down on a calendar and it was a very big and very tough 5- 6- 7-game stretch, so the kids knew what it is about.
“We are happy that we are playing because at the end of (2020), we were playing a game and sitting about nine days and then playing a game and sitting nine days. So, the boys are happy they’re not practicing. I’m happy we’re coaching in games and not having to practice. So, we are enjoying this stretch where we’re actually playing games.”
Nixa coach Jay Osborne said Tuesday’s game came down to two things for his team – poor decision-making and missed free throws.
“We didn’t make very good decisions in the overtime,” Osborne said. “Let me start by saying you can’t shoot 9 of 18 from the free-throw line and beat really good teams. (The Chiefs) have an outstanding team, but 9 of 18 is not going to cut it, so that’s an area we can improve on.
“We didn’t finish the first quarter very well. We definitely didn’t finish (before) halftime very well. But, I’ll tell you, the kids battled. They played hard. They put themselves in a position to be successful; we just didn’t finish the game. I thought we had them where we wanted them (in overtime), we just didn’t finish.”
But, the Eagles won’t have time to dwell on the loss as they turn around to face Parkview on Wednesday night at home.
“Less than 24 hours, actually 22 hours,” Osborne said. “We’re not going to pout about this one. We had opportunities. Our kids played hard. I’m proud of our kids for their effort. We just made some decisions tonight that we just can’t make.”
As for the Chiefs, even though the schedule shows them facing Joplin on Jan. 26, McHenry said they could pick up another game this week.
“We’re still two games short, so we’ll try to add a game at the end of the week, if we can,” McHenry said. “But, we’ve got a big district game against a district opponent next week against Joplin, which is our senior night, and it’s another big one. Then, we turn around and come right back here (Nixa) for three games playing in the Nixa Tournament. So, our tough stretch is not over by any means and it’ll be competitive and it’ll be tough from here on out.”
KICKAPOO 64, NIXA 62 (OT)
Nonconference game
KICKAPOO 20-15-9-12-8—64
NIXA 15-11-16-14-6—62
KICKAPOO (9-2) – Anton Brookshire 16, Cameron Liggins 14, Isaac Haney 19, Trevon Brazile 11, Harrison Doennig 2, Mitchell Kellogg 2.
NIXA (11-2) – Jaret Nelson 12, Kael Combs 19, Kaleb Wofford 5, Jason Jones 5, Colin Ruffin 13, Jordyn Turner 3, T.J. Sorgenfrei 5.
Kickapoo B 78, Nixa B 76 (OT)
