Balanced Eagles Take Gold Title

Dylan Bekemeier drives in the 1st half of the Blue & Gold championship.
Dylan Bekemeier drives in the 1st half of the Blue & Gold championship.
Republic battled back from a double-digit deficit to tie the game in the 4th quarter, but didn’t have enough to overcome Nixa in a 60-56 loss in the finals of the Blue & Gold Tournament. The loss ends an 18-game winning streak for the Tigers dating back to last year.

The Eagles did it without a standout star. Instead, they had four players who scored in double figures, led by Chase Allen with 14. Logan Middleton added 13 and Bryce Dulin had 11. The Tigers’ defense did a good job of containing Nixa’s Jacob Ruder, holding him to five points.

The Tigers let early turnovers, coupled with Nixa’s hot outside shooting, put them in a hole early. Nixa hit four three-pointers in building a 21-12 lead by the end of the 1st quarter. On the offensive end, Republic had trouble taking care of the ball, failing to even get a shot on at least five possessions. Brock Yocum’s outside shooting — he had three three-pointers in the 1st half — helped keep the Tigers close. At the halftime break, Nixa led 31-26.

Coach Trevyor Fisher says his team may have come out a little too amped up for the championship game, but Nixa capitalized by making big plays early to get things rolling.

“It was probably a combination of both a little bit. They kind of stung us a little bit there early, hit some shots,” Fisher says. “We knew we had to take away their inside game first, and they just had some kids step up and hit shots, so give them credit.”

In the 3rd quarter, every time Nixa stretched the lead, Republic answered with a run of its own. At the end of three, it was 43-37 Nixa. The Tigers turned to Cody Geiger early in the 4th. The 6’4″ senior took over inside, and when he converted a three-point play with about two minutes left, the teams were tied at 51 apiece.

Nixa scored the next four points, and from there, the Tigers couldn’t hit the shots they needed to close the gap. Nixa made its free throws down the stretch to hang on and win their fourth straight Blue & Gold Tournament title.

“Give our guys credit,” Fisher says. “They could have thrown in the towel pretty early and they kept battling and battling, and eventually got the thing tied. (They) just didn’t have enough to get over the top.”

The loss is the first of the season for the Tigers, who fall to 9-1. Fisher says Republic’s performance Monday, and throughout the tournament, will give them plenty to work on before the conference season begins.

“The last three games, we had spurts where we weren’t very good defensively. We’ve got to get things shored up a little bit on that end,” Fisher says. “We’ve got to work on boxing out and getting rebounds. I felt like they got four or five extra possessions that really swung the momentum, and in a close game like that, it really paid off for them.”

Cody Geiger led the Tigers with 20 points. Dylan Bekemeier added 16. Yocum added nine, Canyon Smith had six, Jordan Kerr had three, and Chase Hoffmann scored two.

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