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In big games like this one, it’s that one play — or that one series of plays — that makes a big difference.
And not surprisingly, it wasn’t one of the typical stars, and it wasn’t without some controversy, that Kickapoo escaped with a 65-59 home victory against district rival Nixa on Friday night.
“This is kind of what you expect in a game like this,” Kickapoo junior Jack Simpson said.
In the middle of a tight fourth quarter in a packed house at Kickapoo High School’s gym, a controversial call played a prominent role.
Kickapoo’s 6-foot-2 Tyson Batiste grabbed Nixa’s 6-foot-7 Jacob Ruder from behind to prevent a shot. Instead of an intentional foul — which would have given Nixa two free throws and the ball, trailing 58-55 — a regular foul was called. Ruder’s two free throws made it 58-57 with 1:56 left.
“I’ll never blame officials for a loss, but that was a huge, huge no-call,” Nixa coach Jay Osborne said. “I guess I don’t understand what an intentional foul anymore is. He just bear-hugged us. That’s an intentional foul and (down one) we get the ball. ... That’s a big swing.”
Further adding to Nixa’s misery was that the ensuing Kickapoo bucket was one of those that probably shouldn’t have happened.
Kickapoo sophomore Isaac Johnson — with the Chiefs milking the clock and clinging to that 58-57 lead — drove right into two of Nixa’s huge interior players to make a twisting lay-in as he fell away from the rim.
Johnson was playing for two reasons — typical starter Batiste was battling the flu; and Johnson played well enough Friday to be in there with the game on the line. He scored 18 points in his first varsity start.
“What we told him was we don’t want him to try to be Tyson, we needed him to be Isaac,” Kickapoo coach Dick Rippee said. “And Isaac’s pretty good. Maybe, as a sophomore, some of the decisions he makes are questionable. As we tell him, there’s going to be something happen and most of it tonight was good.”
Said Johnson, with a laugh, “(Rippee) told me his heart kind of stopped for a second, but he was fine after it went in.”
After Johnson’s bucket extended the lead to 60-57, the Eagles (10-4) stuck with their hot hand in Ruder. The junior scored 10 straight Nixa points in one stretch, but his 3-pointer with 29 seconds left fell short. Simpson made four straight free throws to clinch it.
“(Isaac) was a little bit down on his confidence shooting the ball, but after tonight I don’t think his confidence is down anymore,” said Simpson, who added 17 points. “Isaac stepped up from the first quarter. Last year as a sophomore in my first game against Nixa, I had eight turnovers in the first quarter. He had nine points, so give him a lot of credit.”
Batiste scored 10 points and dished out six assists for the Chiefs (13-4), who are positioned to take the No. 1 seed in the Class 5 District 11 tournament.
Nixa led 44-43 to open the fourth quarter before Ruder took over. His 3-pointer with 3:48 left tied it at 55, but Kickapoo answered. Matt Ridder’s 3-pointer — one of his four in a 13-point effort — gave Kickapoo the lead for good with 2:34 left.
“We did a nice job, we caught them, we got it tied, we took the lead, we had the lead to start the fourth quarter,” Osborne said. “But they scored the first five possessions of the fourth quarter and we can’t get a stop. When you play these games like this, when it comes down to one, two or three possessions — you’ve got to get stops.”
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