The Bolivar Liberators used a strong defensive effort in the third quarter to defeat the Rogersville Wildcats, 55-34, in a matchup between two of the top teams of the COC Small Division. The winner of tonight’s contest was all but assured at least a share of the conference title. It was Senior Night at Bolivar and all seven seniors got to play.
The first quarter saw Rogersville use a ball-control type of offense and a strong defense to hold the Liberators to 12 first quarter points. Bolivar settled for the outside shot in the first half and did not make many. Rogersville was playing their style of game, playing possession basketball.
The big moment of the first quarter was when Bolivar’s Conley Garrison made a three pointer at the buzzer to give them a five-point lead, 12-7. Toward the end of the first quarter, Rogersville went into a scoring drought that would continue into the second quarter. By the time Rogersville scored again, Bolivar had seen a 9-0 run and was up 16-7. Bolivar continued to play good defense in the first half but they gave up offensive rebounds.
In the second quarter, Rogersville continued to slow the game down and Bolivar did not get the ball inside to their post, something they would try to remedy at halftime. Bolivar took a six point lead into the half, 24-18.
In the first half, Bolivar’s junior Brandon Emmert was held scoreless, but the second half was a different story. Emmert, who stands 6’6”, scored 10 of his game high 17 points in the third quarter, giving the Liberators a comfortable 43-24 lead.
“My teammates do a really good job of getting me the ball,” said Emmert. “Even if I’m not scoring, we know that if we get inside we’re going to get good looks. When I wasn’t making shots or was taking not so good shots, they kept feeding me, kept getting it in to me. I couldn’t be happier to be on this team. They know that I’m big in the post and if they get it into me I can kick it out to them on a decent pass. I’m happy that they are good shooters, they are really good shooters. We kept fighting, we kept scrapping.”
“I’ve been here for eight years, and Gorman has been here, and we know each other, we know what we’re doing, both teams, so it’s a grind,” said Bolivar Coach Robby Hoegh. “We’re just trying to get a little bit of separation throughout the game. Fortunately, we had a six point lead at half. We then came out and Bryce kind of opened some things up for Brandon on the inside by hitting some three’s. We then did a good job of getting Brandon the ball and got to our spacing on our post cut.”
“Brandon is a really good player; we’ve got seven really good players and that’s why we are a good team,” said Hoegh. “Whenever someone is getting things, it’s because we are taking what the defense gives us. Our kids do a good job of that. Defensive was where the game was won. We held them to six points that third quarter, it was great defensive intensity.”
During the third quarter, Marcus Gorman got his third foul and had to sit out. Bolivar was up ten at that point and Rogersville could not recover from the loss of Gorman.
The Liberators’ defense held Rogersville to just one bucket in the third quarter. The fourth quarter saw Bolivar continue to pound it inside and Rogersville had no answer for Emmert.
“Bolivar is a very good team,” said Rogersville coach Rod Gorman. “Our double rotations didn’t come as quick as we’d liked and they kept throwing different lineups at us. One on one we cannot guard Emmert. Too much Emmert in the second half hurt us. We have two more games to try to regain our momentum before Districts. We knew the conference would come down to the Bolivar game and we knew that it would be an awfully tough game.”
With Bolivar holding a comfortable lead, the Liberators spread the offense. Rogersville was forced to foul but it would do no good as Bolivar pulled away for the win.
Senior Bryce Krueger was the Liberators’ second leading scorer with 14.
“It is awesome to win on Senior night,” said Krueger. “The atmosphere today was unlike any other but we had to make it a game like any other. We had to come out and just play our game. We’ve got Reeds Spring on Tuesday and if we can get that one then we’ve got conference, but we can’t look past that game. We have to look at it as just another game. They’ve only got one loss so we’ve got to take them serious. We will play here, though, and it is always nice to play at home.”
“I always say, when you play Rogersville, you’re going to get better; win or lose, you’re going to get better,” said Hoegh. “Gorman is a hall of fame coach for a reason and I am proud of our kids for getting a win.”
Rogersville—Christian Brown-13, Jake Croby-6, Marcus Gorman-5, Andrew Scott-4, Evan Whetstone-4, Luke Vandersnick-2
Bolivar—Brandon Emmert-17, Bryce Krueger-14, Johnny Scott-11, Conley Garrison-8, John Michael Cates-3, Case Jones-2
Bolivar 12 12 19 12 -55
Rogersville 7 11 6 10 -34
