By Pat Dailey (For OzarkSportsZone.com)
Brooke Teter and her Nixa teammates were thrilled not to be in position again of forcing a friendly smile after a loss while posing for a traditional post-tournament team photo.
Nixa’s six seniors were thrilled to show off their pearly whites Saturday while celebrating their 64-55 victory versus Fair Grove in the final of the Nixa Invitational Tournament.
It wasn’t lost on the seniors that dating back to their freshman season they had played in 13 regular-season and post-season tournaments without a single championship.
“It feels so good to finally win a tournament, after we hadn’t won any tournament in high school,” said Teter, who scored a team-high 14 points. “It feels good to finally have some hardware. We feel successful.”
Nixa actually has been one of southwest Missouri’s winningest programs in recent years, reeling off five straight 20-win seasons. But even during that streak, the hosts hadn’t won their own tournament championship since 2019.
In contrast, Fair Grove’s seniors have been part of nine regular-season and post-season tournament championships during their high school careers, not to mention the success they’ve enjoyed in volleyball and softball.
Nixa earned its ever-so elusive tourney title by putting up 24 points in the fourth quarter. The teams were tied at 40 through three quarters.
Nixa’s edge at the 3-point line stood out. With Addy Ruffin netting a trio of 3s and Kennedy Nash hitting a pair of treys, Nixa outscored Fair Grove 15-3 beyond the arc.
“You let shooters shoot,” Nixa coach Jenny Talbert said. “Kennedy, Addy and Ceely (Young) can catch fire. You don’t want to hold them back. For the most part, they have the green light.”
Nash triggered a 15-3 Nixa run at the start of the fourth quarter. She had both her 3s and scored eight points during that spurt.
“The flow of our offense got me and Addy so many open shots,” Nash said.
Fair Grove totaled 40 points in the paint, but struggled to find points from the perimeter, going 1-of-10 on 3-point attempts.
Coach Gary Greene felt his team’s tournament trail took its toll. Fair Grove (14-4) beat Columbia Battle 57-47 Thursday and edged Troy 62-58 Friday, while Nixa enjoyed 36- and 27-point blowout wins.
“Our path to the championship game was a lot tougher than theirs,” Greene said. “We were really tired. Normally, tired doesn’t beat us. But I feel like in the fourth quarter it did. We couldn’t seem to get a rebound. We never could make a shot.
“We ran out of gas,” he added. “When you have to battle hard on back-to-back-to-back nights, you don’t have the legs to do it. We didn’t have the urgency late we needed. But I think we were just really tired, if I’m just being honest.”
Fair Grove had 15 turnovers.
“You play three in a row and you’re tired. Tired causes turnovers,” Greene said. “Nixa is a good team. They’re a really good Class 6 school that is going to compete for a district championship. It was a tall task for us.”
Brooke Daniels topped Fair Grove with 20 points on 8-of-12 shooting from the field. She made all five of her field-goal attempts in the second half.
Teter had 10 of her 14 points in the second half. She finished as the tournament’s leading scorer with 59 points. She scored a career-high 31 in the semifinal round.
Teter and fellow forward Taylor Wood are Nixa’s leading scorers on the season. They both only had four points in the first half, but bounced back to combine for 17 second-half points.
Nixa (14-3) came back from a 15-8 deficit.
“I told the girls before the game that the team that handles adversity the best is probably going to come out on top,” Talbert said. “We took some punches, kept battling back and we were finally able to extend our lead.”
Even with Nixa being in Class 6 and Fair Grove in Class 3, the teams are familiar rivals. A handful of players on both teams played summer ball together two years ago for Southwest Shooters and Talbert coached at Fair Grove for 13 years.
Last year, Fair Grove beat Nixa in overtime for third place at the NIT.
“I always tell (Fair Grove players) I’ll root for them except when they’re playing Nixa,” Talbert said. “Beating them makes (the championship) a little sweeter because we lost to them. It was great to get revenge.”
Nixa 64, Fair Grove 55
FAIR GROVE (55) — Bell 5 4-7 14, Padgett 2 0-0 4, Green 4 3-4 11, Daniels 8 4-5 20, Hart 2 1-2 6, Skouby 0 0-2 0.
NIXA (64) — Teter 5 4-6 14, Wood 3 5-6 11, Kubik 2 0-0 4, Young 1 2-5 4, Ferguson 0-1 6, Nash 5 1-2 13, Ruffin 4 1-2 12.
Fair Grove 15 10 15 15 – 55
Nixa 10 17 13 24 – 64
3-point goals – Ruffin 3, Nash 2, Hart.
