By Michael Cignoli (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
ROGERSVILLE – Curry Sutherland, Brody McNiel and Ross Lawrence may very well be the best three-man pitching rotation in southwest Missouri, but for the next few weeks they’re still playing basketball — and that might pose a bigger challenge for Logan-Rogersville’s opponents.
On the baseball field, teams only have to face one of them at any given time.
Basketball teams aren’t so lucky.
The trio of Missouri State baseball commits combined to score 67 points as the Wildcats rolled to a 75-48 victory over McDonald County in the Big 8 championship game on Tuesday night at Logan-Rogersville High School.
Sutherland led the way with 34, McNiel added 22 and Lawrence had 11 as the Wildcats won their second conference title in the past three seasons.
“Normally, that’s a night for us,” Wildcats coach John Schaefer said. “We don’t need much more points than that. Like I tell our guys, normally on a night if we can score 60 we’re not going to lose. At least the stats say that, because of our defense and controlling possessions and what we do. Any time we can score a little bit, we’re pretty much in good shape.”
The Wildcats (22-3, 7-0) wasted no time scoring in the annual showdown between the Big 8’s East and West division champions, racing out to a 14-4 lead midway through the first quarter.
The Mustangs (13-11, 7-0) responded with a 3-pointer, but the Wildcats closed the period on a 12-4 run to carry a commanding 26-11 lead into the second quarter.
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McNiel (14), Sutherland (six) and Lawrence (six) scored all 26 of Logan-Rogersville’s points.
“Our energy was good,” Schaefer said. “We started early and got after them and got some breakaway layups and then our defense led to some good transition baskets. We were able to get the ball where we wanted to early – we were kind of worried about that with their size – and we executed pretty well, which kind of separated us a little bit and gave us some room.”
Logan-Rogersville stretched that lead to 43-22 at the half, 60-36 at the end of the third quarter and never decelerated, as its 27-point margin of victory represented its largest lead of the night.
For a defensive-minded team that is holding opponents to just 41.9 points per game, the Wildcats are currently playing some of their best offense of the season. Their 75 points represented their second-highest total of the campaign, trailing only the 88 they scored against Licking four days ago.
“On the defensive end, we want to pride ourselves on rebounding, but we need to create that intensity on the offensive end to get some easy baskets so we don’t have to work so hard offensively,” Schaefer said. “Curry gets double- and triple-teamed a lot and so you really have to step up and knock down shots. Brody’s been doing that. He’s shot the ball well lately. Ross has been all over it. Same with Thessen Prenger. It gives us a lot more weapons when those guys can just knock down shots.”
Make no mistake, Sutherland remains the weapon who can do the most damage. The 6-foot-5 senior scored 28 points across the final three quarters, helping the Wildcats pull away.
“He’s our go-to and everybody that knows, knows,” Schaefer said. “He played well. He missed some shots early and tried to force some stuff, but that’s pretty typical of him. Lately, we’ve been able to shoot the ball pretty decently around him and that’s made us a lot better.”
For McNiel, it’s a matter of becoming more comfortable in Logan-Rogersville’s system. The senior transferred from Hartville prior to the school year, a team that plays with a notably different tempo.
“We would push sometimes, but we mostly would walk it down (and) control the game because we don’t have 6-foot-6 guys like we do here,” McNiel said. “And then came here to Rog and (Schaefer) is wanting to push, push, push. It took me a couple of games to get used to it.”
With the district playoffs now less than two weeks away, the Wildcats are happy to see McNiel settling into his new role — just in time for their postseason push.
“We’ve been waiting on him,” Schaefer quipped. “He gets yelled at constantly about ‘Hey, you can’t just hide in the corner.’ He’s got a habit of doing that, but I think that comes with transferring over to a new team and not being solely comfortable, waiting his turn and not being selfish. We just kind of talked to him about ‘No, we need you to score the basketball.’ He’s improved a lot on that.”
Cross Dowd (15 points), Sterling Woods (14) and Josh Pacheco (11) all scored in double-figures for McDonald County, which has two more home games prior to the Class 5 District 6 tournament. The Mustangs will host Mount Vernon on Friday and Willow Springs on Tuesday.
Logan-Rogersville has an eight-day layoff before a non-conference matchup with Bolivar next Thursday. The Liberators, who are receiving votes in the latest Class 5 poll, will be the final regular-season tune-up for a Wildcats team that is ranked eighth in Class 4.
“It’s a great test so we know where we’re at,” Schaefer said. “Bolivar is going to be a real tough game for us. That kind of wakes you back up — and then it’s district time.”
McDONALD COUNTY (13-11, 7-0) 11 11 14 12 — 48
LOGAN-ROGERSVILLE (22-3, 7-0) 26 17 17 15 — 75
