Cody Geiger and Chase Hoffmann combined for 30 points inside as the Republic Tigers beat Hillcrest 63-52 to advance to the finals of the Blue & Gold Tournament. Geiger led the team with 18, and Hoffmann had 12.
Hoffmann, who has scored in double figures for two straight games, picked up the slack as the Hillcrest defense collapsed on Geiger. He scored ten of his points in the first three quarters by exploiting gaps in the Hillcrest defense.
“I know if they’re going to be double-teaming Cody, I just need to get to the open spot and be open for my teammates to pass me the ball, and just get buckets if Cody’s not open,” Hoffmann says. “I was kind of surprised I was that wide open, but if they’re going to give it to me, I’m going to convert for our team.”
“The last two games, he’s done a very good job of being active, getting offensive rebounds, finding the open spots in the defense, and finishing,” coach Trevyor Fisher says of Hoffmann. “It took us a while to get going against their zone, finding the soft spots in it. But once we figured it out, we did a good job of attacking, getting it to the middle, and getting good shots.”
During the 1st quarter, both teams were cautious offensively. The slow pace was similar to the Blue & Gold championship game between these two teams in 2011, and Republic led just 10-9 after one quarter. In the 2nd, the teams combined for six three-pointers. Darnell Green-Beckham had two for Hillcrest, and Canyon Smith had two for Republic, and the Tigers took a 28-25 lead into halftime.
The first few minutes of the 2nd half may have been the most important of the game. After the Tiger defense got a stop, Dylan Bekemeier drove the lane, scored a bucket, and was fouled. He completed the three-point play, and on the next possession, Brock Yocum hit a three-pointer to make the lead 34-25. The Tigers stretched the lead to 45-31 with 3:12 left in the 3rd quarter, and looked like they had the game in hand.
“That set the tone for the 2nd half, gave us a little bit of a cushion,” says Fisher. “(We) hit some shots, got some defensive stops, got a couple of steals in transition, and we’ve usually had one or two of those kind of spurts, most games. That’s something that our team can do, because we can score in bunches. But defensively, we kind of got it going early in the 2nd half.”
The Hornets had one more run in them. They used a strong performance on the offensive boards to close the gap to five points at 51-45, but that’s as close as they’d get. Two Bekemeier free throws stretched the lead back out to seven, and Republic slowed the game and took care of the ball down the stretch to close out the victory.
Republic’s win was the second this season over the Hornets. They defeated Hillcrest in a lopsided game in the finals of the Republic Invitational earlier this year.
The Tiger victory also sets up a COC showdown between Nixa and Republic, who have combined to win five Blue & Gold titles in the past three seasons. Nixa has won three straight titles, and Republic has won two.
“They’re huge,” Fisher says of Nixa. “We’ll have to do a lot better job of boxing out. Again tonight, we didn’t do a very good job, (Hillcrest) got offensive rebound after offensive rebound.
“(Austin) Ruder’s a very nice player, can step out and shoot the three, but is also a load down inside. We’ll have our work cut out for us, there’s no doubt about it.”
The championship game is scheduled for 8:30 Monday night at JQH Arena in Springfield.