By Brennan Stebbins (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
The championship game of the Golden City tournament has been a preview of postseason play in recent years. The host Eagles hope the same is true in 2022.
Third-seeded Golden City made enough clutch plays and clamped down defensively to topple top seed Dadeville 49-48 on Saturday night in the championship game of the tournament’s 66th edition, marking the third straight year the Eagles have won the title.
“You love to win your own tournament,” Golden City coach Michael Reeves said. “The last three years it’s been real good competition. My first year here was against Liberal and they met us in the district championship that year. The next year was against Lockwood who was state ranked number two at the time and then we met them in the district championship. And this year against Dadeville who has a really good chance to win their district. Our tournament really defines our season and we’re hoping it keeps going as it has been.”
Golden City, 11-7, only trailed briefly in the fourth quarter and never led by more than four points. And the Eagles made just 1-of-6 free throw attempts in the final eight minutes.
But Dadeville, 12-3, only made three field goals in the quarter and none in the final 3:13.
“It was just our boys’ determination,” Reeves said. “At times we were making a few mental errors towards the end but when it came down to it defensively we started locking up and we didn’t let them get the shots they wanted. That’s due to the heart and determination of our kids.”
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A bucket by Max Parrill and a free throw by Colby Nelson gave the Eagles a 45-41 lead with 6:21 remaining, but Dadeville cut it to 2 on a basket by Luke Bushey with 4:44 to go. Golden City’s Elijah Pettengill made it 47-43 about a minute later, but Dadeville answered with a quick three pointer by Bushey.
The Bearcats took a 48-47 lead with 1:59 on the clock with a pair of free throws by Aiden Jarmon. Forty-two seconds later, Josh Reeves scored the deciding points for Golden City and then the Eagles forced a turnover with 15 seconds left.
The Eagles missed a free throw with 9 seconds to play but managed to hold Dadeville scoreless on the final possession of the game.
“Usually when teams aren’t making free throws the other team really has a good chance to come back,” Reeves said. “They did come back, but as soon as they got that one point lead our kids really locked down defensively. We stopped Bushey and (Bailey McGill) from getting the locks they wanted at the basket.”
Bushey led all scorers with 28 points but got his fourth foul in the third quarter and didn’t come back into the game until early in the fourth. He was one of three Bearcats to pick up four fouls in the game, and Dadeville coach Curtis Collins said the foul trouble was a new problem.
“It’s the first time we’ve been in foul trouble throughout the season,” he said. “We’ve gone 12-2 so far and we never had a game with one guy with more than four fouls. This was something we had to get used to that we usually don’t see. It happens sometimes in these games. I thought a couple boards and one or two fouls that put guys on the bench really hurt.”
Dadevile led 13-10 after a quarter and by as many as six points in the second, but Golden City’s Josh Reeves poured in 15 points in the quarter to help the Eagles take a 27-25 lead into the half. There were six lead changes in the third quarter alone.
Reeves led Golden City with 19 points, Pettengill added 11 and Parrill scored nine. Bushey led Dadeville with 28 and Bailey McGill and Caden Farmer each had seven.
Michael Reeves said the Eagles have played the toughest schedule this year since he’s been at the school and the team’s 11-7 record isn’t indicative of its talent.
“We’ve played two or three ranked teams, we’ve played Class 4 teams that have 6-9, 6-7 guys on their team,” he said. “We’ve been playing a real tough schedule and we really needed this tournament. Coming into this we were having some real bad shooting nights. Against Lockwood we hit 14 three’s and against this team we made enough winning plays. Going forward we’ve got six conference games and we’re excited to see what we can do.”
Tournament MVP – Josh Reeves, Golden City
Tournament 1st team
Luke Bushey, Dadeville
Elijah Pettengill, Golden City
Aidan Jarmin, Dadeville
Caleb Suschnik, Liberal
Bailey McGill, Dadeville
Tournament 2nd team
Max Parrill, Golden City
Connor Lewandowski, Lockwood
Payton Morrow, Liberal
Wyatt Cawyer, Jasper
Kane Cooper, Lockwood
