By Brennan Stebbins (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
Trailing by four points with less than 30 seconds remaining in Tuesday night’s game at Joplin, the Webb City basketball team needed a spark.
Cohl Vaden provided the Cardinals just that.
The senior converted a three-point play to make it a one-possession game and junior Trey Roets added two free throws to help get the game to overtime, where Webb City pulled out a 60-57 win in the Central Ozark Conference opener for both schools.
“This was huge,” said Webb City coach Jason Horn. “These guys are going to be one of the teams that’s going to finish at or close to the top. We think we have a chance to finish at or close to the top. You want to start 1-0. Each night the league’s tough but this will give us a lot of confidence moving forward. It’s always good to get a win over here. It’s a rivalry game. We’ve won three of the last four. We’re just going to try to build on it.”
Webb City, 9-3 (1-0), avenged a 55-52 loss to Joplin (10-2, 0-1) on Saturday in the finals of the Kaminsky Classic. Tuesday marked the fourth season in a row the two teams have played back-to-back in early January thanks to that tournament, with the Cardinals winning both games last year and the schools splitting in 2020 and 2019.
One big difference on Tuesday were free throws. Webb City made 14-of-16 after halftime, and 4-of-5 in the overtime period, while Joplin made 8-of-15 after the half and just 1-of-4 in overtime.
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Joplin led 52-48 after Always Wright made two free throws with 51 seconds left in the fourth quarter, but the Eagles came up empty with a 1-and-1 opportunity and a one-point lead with 22 seconds remaining. That allowed Webb City to pull ahead following two free throws by Roets with 8.1 seconds on the clock.
Wright made the front end of a 1-and-1 two seconds later to tie it up.
A Joplin free throw by LT Atherton made it 54-53 early in overtime, but Webb City’s Kaden Turner made both of his shots to give the Cardinals a lead.
With 1:57 to play, Roets converted a three-point play to make it 58-54.
“It was huge,” Horn said of the play. “You go back to Saturday, we’re in that same situation but with a lead and we turned it over on the exact same play. They learned from that mistake. That’s a play we run a lot. Cohl made a great pass, Trey made a great catch. That’s the two most important things and then he was able to finish strong, get up and get the ball on the rim and he was clutch on the free throw line. It was just a huge play.”
Joplin missed two more free throws with 1:41 on the clock but Terrance Gibson later corralled a rebound and fed it to Wright, who nailed a three at the 1:06 mark to make it a one-point game.
Joplin missed three shots in the final minute, though, and Webb City’s Dupree Jackson and Max Higginbotham each made a free throw to help seal it.
“Both games free throws were big,” Horn said. “We had some big ones we missed on Saturday. We cleaned that up and we made those. We felt like we were the better team Saturday. We felt like we lost the game. And they come in here today and I’m just proud of them for regrouping. Shots weren’t always going our way but we were mentally tough and finished.”
Joplin coach Bronson Schaake said his team just didn’t close it out.
“We talked about getting a key rebound and getting a key stop, finishing at the free throw line and things like that,” he said. “You’ve got to be able to capitalize in a close rivalry game like this. We just didn’t do it.”
The game saw 23 lead changes and was tied at 10 after a quarter. Webb City led 25-24 at halftime but there were five lead changes in the first five possessions of the third quarter. Webb City led 40-35 with 2:03 left in the third but it was tied again at 40 going into the fourth. Again the Cardinals went ahead by four, but three pointers by Wright and Bruce Wilbert made it 50-48 Joplin. That snapped a more than 10-minute stretch where Webb City never trailed.
The Cardinals were led by 24 points from Kaden Turner and got 17 from Roets and 13 from Vaden. Always Wright led Joplin with 16 and brother All Wright added 15.
