[wpbvideo id=”978112″]
By Brennan Stebbins (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
Republic won the opening tip and scored just four seconds into Tuesday’s district semifinal at Joplin.
But Nixa dominated the rest of the first quarter, building a double-digit lead in less than three minutes and rolling to a 58-39 victory to advance to the Class 6 District 5 championship game on Friday.
“We just wanted to have an attack mindset,” Nixa coach Jennifer Perryman said. “We had a different defensive game plan with Kaemyn (Bekemeier) with her having 37 last time. We changed up how we were going to double up and guard her but we wanted to attack in transition. I think with our spacing and our transition it’s hard to keep up with us for four quarters so we wanted to have that attack mindset from the first few minutes and never let up.”
Fourth-ranked Nixa, the second seed in the district, earned an 84-76 win in the regular season matchup with eighth-ranked Republic, the third seed. The Eagles limited Bekemeier to just nine points in the rematch.
Nixa (23-4) scored 10 in a row after her early basket and led 16-4 after a basket by Macie Conway with 5:13 left in the first. The Tigers (21-7) got it back to single digits by the end of the quarter – and even pulled within eight early in the fourth – but the early deficit was too much to overcome.
“If there was a defining moment in that whole thing it was probably the first five, six minutes,” Republic coach Kris Flood said. “They came out and looked like they were fired up and ready to go. We tried to work on some stuff to try and stop that transition but we didn’t do a very good job with it at the beginning. They’re too good of a team to dig that type of hole.”
It was a 23-14 game after a quarter and Republic pulled within 30-25 midway through the second after Rilynn Finley made a three pointer, but Nixa’s Macie Conway answered with one of her own 16 seconds later. That’s how it went the rest of the night; Nixa answering whenever it needed to.
CLICK HERE FOR PHOTOS OF THE GAME
The Eagles built a 15-point lead in the third quarter and led 47-37 going into the fourth. A basket by Bekemeier got the Tigers within eight with 6:14 left to play, but Republic turned it over on its next three possessions and didn’t score again the rest of the game.
Conway did a lot of the damage for Nixa, scoring a game-high 26 points that included 10 points in the second quarter alone. Norah Clark added 14 and Alison Kamies scored 12.
Nixa was also good at the free throw line, making 11-of-15 in the game and all four attempts in the second half.
“Their ability to score, they’re so well balanced,” Flood said. “They create bad matchups for us. It’s almost like it’s one of those groups that we struggle sometimes matching up with them. We shifted to zone, had a little bit of luck with that and we were at least getting them to miss some shots but we were sometimes our own worst enemy, too. Too many turnovers. Just too many mistakes.”
Nixa heads into Friday’s championship having won 10-straight games.
“I have a tremendous amount of respect for Kris Flood and what he does with his teams year in and year out is incredible,” Perryman said. “They’re a veteran team who has been in these high-level games year after year. They’ve got one of the best players in the state on their team and some great role players. Any time you can get that kind of a win on a team like that, it should be a good shot in the arm for our kids.”
Republic’s leading scorer was Mihane Nambara with 16, and Finley added 10.
