By Brennan Stebbins (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
Nixa head coach Jay Osborne called it an uninspiring effort – multiple times.
But the Eagles basketball team still jumped out to a 15-2 lead and kept Carthage at arm’s length the rest of the way to earn a 57-40 road win in Tuesday’s Central Ozark Conference tilt.
“Quick turnaround off of a four day Blue and Gold Tournament,” Osborne said. “We’ve had these lags before. No disrespect to Carthage but I thought it was a pretty uninspired effort. We just kind of went through the motions and we just can’t do that. I didn’t think we got better tonight. I’m not real happy with saying some things. We’re happy with the win, it’s a conference win, but that was just an uninspiring effort on our part. We’ve got to have better effort.”
Class 6 No. 3 Nixa, which improved to 9-1 and 2-0 in the COC, scored the first nine points of the game and limited Carthage (9-2, 0-1) to just two points in the first quarter. Five different Eagles scored in the opening frame.
It was 15-2 less than a minute into the second following a basket by Colin Ruffin, but then Carthage’s Joel Pugh got hot from three-point range and scored nine-straight points to get the Tigers back into it. Nixa’s Jaret Nelson ended the run with a dunk to make it 17-11, and though Carthage pulled back within six points three different times before the half, the Eagles took a 28-17 lead into the break.
“We got a good start and then we kind of went into we’re going to win mode,” Osborne said. “You just can’t play like that. They’ve got a nice shooter out there and he hit three in a row on us. We knew he could do that. We lost him a few times. That just can’t happen. We just had a lot of mental lapses tonight, just weren’t very sharp. We’ve got to get things back on track. We were playing really well late December and we’re going to have to turn things back around.”
Carthage coach Nathan Morris said the atmosphere early was “really weird” with his team back on its heels and playing at a bad pace.
“It took us that full eight minutes to adjust to their size and length,” he said. “They hit shots and we didn’t. I felt we woke up and made a push that second quarter.”
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Pugh, who missed his first four shots from the floor, “saved” the Tigers by getting hot in the second quarter, Morris said. He finished with 13 of the team’s 17 points in the first half.
Nixa pulled ahead by 14 midway through the third quarter but Carthage made several small runs to keep within striking distance, getting as close as nine (35-26) after a three-point play by Tyler Willis.
A bucket by Clay Kinder to open the fourth made it 39-29. Nixa again extended the lead to 14 following a three-point play by Ruffin, but a three pointer later in the quarter by Carthage’s Caden Kabance again cut it to 10.
Nixa finally pulled away in the closing minutes, largely at the free throw line. Ruffin made three free throws and Kael Combs added two more. Colten Berry and Keith Piepmeier also added field goals.
“For our kids to fight against a state-ranked Nixa and the length and size that group has…I told our guys I don’t think they got our best shot tonight,” Morris said. “Who knows what would have happened if we had made one more little push in that fourth quarter.”
“I didn’t think we shared the ball well and we missed some open guys,” Osborne said. “We weren’t throwing to the post when they were wide open a few times. We struggled at the line again. I don’t know what we were but it seemed like we missed a lot of free throws again. It’s just mental. I wasn’t real happy with our effort tonight but it’s a win and we’ll take it. I think tomorrow we’ll feel better about things.”
Ruffin led Nixa with 15 points, Combs scored 12 and Nelson finished with 10. The Eagles made 14-of-20 free throws, with Ruffin making 4-of-5 in the fourth quarter. Combs was 6-for-7 at the line.
Pugh led Carthage with 17 points, and Max Templeman scored nine. The Tigers made 5-of-9 free throw attempts.
Carthage returns to action Thursday at McDonald County, and Nixa will travel to Logan-Rogersville on Friday.
