By Brennan Stebbins (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
The Lockwood and Dadeville boys basketball teams continued their recent run of must-watch basketball games against each other.
Last season, Lockwood earned a 37-30 win in the Golden City Tournament championship and then a 45-44 win in overtime before Dadeville got the last word with a 51-48 overtime win in the district championship.
The schools met for the first time this season on Saturday night––again in the tournament finals at Golden City’s 69th annual edition––and Lockwood regained its bragging rights with a tough 61-46 win over the Bearcats.
“This is the first game that Nik Thieman hasn’t been able to play basically the entire time so whenever he got three fouls in the first quarter I was super proud of our guys for a lineup that typically would not have been out there going out and not just performing well but doing a good job maintaining and extending a lead,” Lockwood coach Ethan Baker said. “Super proud of those guys that typically aren’t going to be in a lineup together.”
Thieman went on to score 16 points, all in the second half, while Landry Ogden and Sean Contreras combined for 23 points in the first two quarters. It was a pair of layups by Contreras late in the first frame that broke a 7-7 tie and gave the Tigers a lead they never relinquished.
After a 10-2 run by Lockwood, Dadeville’s Payton Crawford sank a 3-pointer and then Briar Clift scored to make it a 17-14 game midway through the second quarter. Lockwood closed the half on an 8-0 run to lead 25-14 at the break.
The second half was more of the same: Dadeville trying to claw its way back, and Lockwood doing just enough to keep the Bearcats at bay.
Lockwood’s Thieman made a 3-pointer to give the Tigers a 31-18 lead two minutes into the third, and then Dadeville’s Chayse Coose scored underneath to cut it to 32-23 minutes later.
A four-point play by Thieman made it 39-25 later in the third––Lockwood’s largest lead yet––and it was 43-30 going into the fourth after a late basket by Lockwood’s Contreras. Thieman scored again to make it a 15-point game, but less than a minute later Dadeville’s Gavin Orr connected on a deep 3-pointer to cut it to 10. It was 47-37 after Clift grabbed an offensive rebound and scored.
With 1:48 remaining, Payton Crawford made a 3-pointer for the Bearcats that got them within 54-46. But Lockwood’s Contreras answered with a layup, then Thieman intercepted a pass and scored on a jumper. Lockwood’s Ogden added a 3-pointer in the final minute for the final points of the game.
“This is a really good tournament for us,” Baker said. “This is kind of the last stretch playing schools around our size. After this we go to the Stockton tournament and then to conference play where it’s all going to be mostly Class 2 or Class 3 schools. We knew this was really important to perform well to keep momentum and to feel good going into a stretch we know is going to be a really tough part of our schedule.”
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Lockwood improved to 10-2 with its eighth-straight win, while Dadeville dropped to 10-4.
Contreras finished with 20 points for the Tigers and Ogden scored 16. Finley Masterson added 7 points.
For Dadeville, Clift and Chayse Coose each scored 16 and Crawford notched 6. Orr and Aiden McGill each scored 3 and Ashton Edwards totaled 2.
All-Tournament Team
Dadeville’s Coose was named tournament MVP and was joined on the all-tournament first team by Thieman and Ogden from Lockwood, and Bronaugh’s Strauss Banes and Liberal’s Ben Dingman. Second teamers were Golden City’s Jamison Menadue and Spencer Parrill, Dadeville’s Clift, Lockwood’s Contreras and Greenfield’s Nikolas Gossett.
