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There aren’t too many ways a team can go scoreless for more than 3 minutes in a quarter and still win a basketball game. Republic found one Thursday night.
The Lady Tigers held Nixa without a field goal for the entire second quarter — and for the final 9:30 of the first half — then held off a second-half rally to earn a 55-45 Central Ozark Conference win at home.
“I did not realize that,” said Republic coach Kris Flood when told his team had nearly pitched a shutout in the second quarter. “I get so caught up in what’s going on. Usually we’ll forget to block out and give up an offensive rebound or something like that and they’ll get a putback.”
A Toshua Leavitt bucket pulled Nixa to within 8-7 with 1:35 to play in the first quarter. That was as close as they’d get the rest of the night. Jordan Kabetske answered with a 3-pointer from the right wing and a 7-0 surge to open the second quarter put Republic in control.
Nixa, meanwhile, opened the period with three straight turnovers and — though they held Republic scoreless from the 5:54 mark to the 2:38 mark — they could not make a dent in their deficit. Instead, the Lady Eagles turned the ball over five more times and went 0-for-5 from the floor.
“We were too worried about what happened in the first quarter. There are four quarters for a reason,” said Nixa coach Jennifer Perryman. “We’ve got to flush it and move on. We were too worried about missed shots, we stopped being aggressive offensively, we started turning the ball over more. And we had some defensive mismatches, which isn’t like us at all. That’s usually our strongest suit. We just didn’t play like us.”
And that was due in large part to Republic. “They do a good job of taking you out of your game,” said Perryman. “That’s what they’re known for. They had a game plan and they executed it very well.”
A pair of Angie Allen free throws were Nixa’s only points of the quarter, giving Republic a 24-9 lead at the break.
Leavitt exploded for 17 of her game-high 19 points in the second half — including five 3-pointers — as the Lady Eagles made a few charges at Republic. But the lead never shrunk below seven points as the Lady Tigers improved to 18-4 on the season and held on to first in the COC Large, at 4-0.
Three Lady Tigers scored in double figures, including Kabetske with 11. Brooke Stanfield led the way with 13 and Tori Taylor added 12.
“I thought we’d improve a lot from our first game,” said Kabetske. “We’re still improving and we’re still doing our best. We’ve just got to keep doing that.”
Allen joined Leavitt in double-digits for Nixa, though they accounted for 36 of Nixa’s 45 points, 80 percent of their offense.
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