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By Kai Raymer (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
Nixa coach Jay Osborne liked what he saw during his team’s morning shootaround.
The Eagles had already won their first battle of the day – simply being awake and ready for a 9:30 a.m. tipoff.
“Our guys showed up to the gym this morning, awake, which was a good sign,” Osborne said. “Those games can be hard to play in – there’s not much of a crowd or atmosphere. I thought our guys were focused though.”
Top seed Nixa showed no morning grogginess once the action started, defeating Fair Grove 85-43 in a Blue Division quarterfinal.
Nixa overwhelmed Fair Grove with depth and defense.
Eleven players scored for Nixa, led by Colin Ruffin (17), Jordyn Turner (17) and Kael Combs (13).
“We have about eight kids right now that we’ll rotate in and out. We feel pretty good about all of them,” Osborne said. “They all do one little thing really well. It’s just a matter of finding the right combinations.”
Nixa led 44-22 at halftime and 68-31 entering the fourth quarter.
Nixa’s pressure defense led to transition points, highlighted by a handful of dunks.
Fair Grove coach Brian Tucker knew his team would have to hold up well in that area in order to pull off the upset. Nixa also made eight 3-pointers.
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“The biggest thing we wanted to do, and we didn’t do a very good job of it, was limiting them in transition,” Tucker said. “They made 19 3-pointers in their win yesterday, so we were kind of hoping they shot all their makes yesterday.
“Give (Nixa) a ton of credit. They’re as physical defensively as any team out there. They made it difficult for us to play offense.”
Osborne said Nixa’s depth allows the Eagles to play an array of defenses. Nixa played man-to-man against Fair Grove and threw in an effective full-court press at times.
“We’ve got some quickness and length, which causes (teams) problems,” Osborne said. “Fair Grove does a good job with their offense. They do a lot of curls and back-cuts; I think their offense is really good. We got caught a few times.
“This team still has a lot of improvement to be made on the defensive end, but I think our effort is there. If we can just clean some things up, I think we can be a pretty good defensive team.”
Nixa, ranked No. 3 in Class 6 in the MBCA state rankings, will play Springfield Catholic at 4 p.m. Wednesday at JQH Arena in the Blue Division semifinals.
Fair Grove plays Marshfield in the consolation bracket at 12:30 p.m. Wednesday next door at Hammons Student Center.
Devin Carroll led Fair Grove (7-4 overall) with 18 points against Nixa. While Fair Grove has already played 11 games this season, it’s had limited practice time under a first-year head coach.
Much of Fair Grove’s roster features multi-sport athletes who played on fall teams (football, soccer) that made deep postseason runs.
After playing Mt. Vernon on Dec. 21, Fair Grove (No. 10-ranked in Class 4 MBCA rankings) had four practices leading up to the Blue and Gold Tournament – the longest stretch between games since the regular season began in late November.
“I’m really proud of our guys, with how hard we’ve played and how well we’ve rebounded,” Tucker said. “There’s a lot of stuff that we’ve slowly tried to get in, instill and work on. We still have a lot of room to grow and improve.”
Nixa 85, Fair Grove 43
Nixa 17 27 24 17 — 85
Fair Grove 9 13 9 12 — 43
Nixa (7-0 overall) – Ruffin 17, Turner 17, Combs 13, Berry 8, Hines 6, Peters 5, Nelson 5, McCoy 4, Engelman 4, Bell 4, C. Kemp 2
Fair Grove (7-4 overall) – Carroll 18, Rowden 8, Orr 4, Baxter 3, Daniels 2, Berry 2, Stacye 2, Faubian 2, Barnett 2
