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By Michael Cignoli (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
SPRINGFIELD — Trailing by a point late in the fourth quarter and poised to fall even further behind, Logan-Rogersville coach John Schaefer called two of his players to half court.
With Greenwood in possession of the basketball and poised to extend its lead or run out the clock, the coach told Kanon Gipson and JJ O’Neal that it was time to make a play.
What, exactly, that looked like was open to interpretation. But the Wildcats needed to do something — anything — to change the course of the game, and do it quickly.
Not even 20 seconds later, Gipson delivered.
The senior intercepted an ill-advised pass and ran it down the court for a lead-changing layup with exactly one minute to go, and Greenwood squandered its chances to regain the advantage as the Wildcats held on for a wild 46-44 victory on Thursday evening.
“When you want to win big games, you’ve got to make big plays,” Schaefer said. “I can’t think of a bigger one than that down the stretch.”
Logan-Rogersville won its sixth consecutive game — and seventh of eight — to improve to 13-4 on the season. The Wildcats have gone 13-2 since opening the year with back-to-back losses to Parkview and Ozark at the Republic Invitational, and Nixa is the only team to beat them since their third-place finish in the Gold Division of the Blue & Gold Tournament last month. This win is arguably their biggest of the stretch, coming against one of the state’s top Class 3 schools.
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Schaefer said the Blue & Gold Tournament is historically a turning point for the Wildcats.
“It makes us better every year,” Schaefer said. “I think we go in with a chip on our shoulder. As we go, we get better. That’s what we’ve been fortunate to do year in and year out.”
This year’s turn might be more dramatic though, as the Wildcats also added 6-foot-7 guard Jonathan Dunn.
The Western Illinois commit, who transferred from the St. Louis area, led the team with 14 points on Thursday, scoring them all as the Wildcats surged in the second and third quarters.
Logan-Rogersville trailed by seven early in the second before going on a 10-3 run to pull even at 20-20. Greenwood ended the half with a 23-22 lead before O’Neal opened the third quarter with a 3-pointer, touching off an 8-1 run that put the Wildcats ahead by seven.
Greenwood rallied with a 9-0 run to regain a 32-20 lead with 2:45 to go in the third, but neither team led by more than three points the rest of the night. O’Neal hit another 3-pointer in the final seconds of the third to give Logan-Rogersville a 38-37 lead entering the fourth.
The lead changed four times over the final eight minutes, punctuated by Gipson’s layup that put the Wildcats up 45-44 with 60 seconds remaining.
Gipson was in foul trouble, having already committed four, so Schaefer said the senior was playing a more passive defense than he normally would in that situation. But Gipson was standing in a passing lane as Dunn pressured the ball handler, limiting Greenwood’s options.
As soon as the ball left the player’s hands, Gipson pounced.
“Our game plan was effort,” Schaefer said. “We just wanted to out-hustle them as much as we could. We know what a load they are and how physical they are on the boards and we just wanted to match them. We talked about putting together four quarters of effort. We know we’re talented in spots and we can do some good things, but we just talked about that this game is a grind. If you want to win it, you’re going to have to grind the whole way through.”
That grind continued in the final moments, as Greenwood had multiple chances to regain the lead — but couldn’t capitalize on any of them. The Blue Jays’ next possession ended without any points, and Logan-Rogersville ran nearly 30 seconds off the clock before Greenwood sent them to the foul line with 18 seconds remaining. Dunn missed both of his attempts, keeping it 45-44.
The Blue Jays stormed down the court and found Kaden Stuckey in the paint, but he couldn’t convert and the Wildcats quickly grabbed the loose ball and were fouled with just 3.6 seconds left. Gipson split his attempts, giving the Blue Jays a chance at a buzzer-beater.
Georgetown commit Aminu Mohammed quickly dribbled down the court and went up for a shot, but had two defenders on him. Instead of following through or attempting to draw a foul, he sent a cross-court pass to Tommy Pinegar, but the ball sailed out of bounds to end the game.
“With that much time left, you can’t throw it across the court,” Blue Jays coach Darren Taylor said.
Mohammed led all scorers with 23 points, but had just two in the fourth quarter and eight in the second half as the Blue Jays, playing their seventh game in 14 days, fell to 15-4. Their previous six games have all been against teams ranked in the Top 6 in their respective classes, and they have another Top-6 showdown with Class 6 No 3. Blue Valley North this Saturday.
Greenwood is 3-4 during this stretch.
“We’ve had to play several games in a row now with only a day or two rest,” Taylor said. “We’re trying to be conscious of that and see if we can get our legs back under us. We have a little stretch down the end where we’ll have a break and have a chance to get some rest.”
Gipson finished with 13 points for the Wildcats, while O’Neal had nine and Curry Sutherland scored all five of his in the fourth quarter.
