Canyon Smith eyes a shot in the 2nd half. He had 17 for the night.Carthage came out on fire from three-point range. But it didn’t matter one bit.
Republic took control from the opening tipoff and romped to a 78-36 victory on the road in their Central Ozark Conference opener. The Tigers led Carthage 36-11 at one point. If Carthage hadn’t hit its first three three-point attempts of the game, it would have been much worse.
Carthage had no answer for dribble penetration by just about everyone in Republic’s lineup in that opening period. Cody Geiger got off to a hot start, with 11 of his 13 points in the 1st quarter.
“We always talk about attacking the paint by either penetration or throwing it to the post,” says coach Trevyor Fisher. “We got off to a relatively good start and made some shots, and forced some turnovers on the defensive end, which led to some easy baskets.”
Republic led 20-9 after the 1st quarter, and 42-17 at halftime. Fifteen of Carthage’s 17 1st-half points came on threes. Carthage hit eight three-pointers for the night. Six of them came from Cole Orscheln, who led all scorers with 18 points.
Dillen Ramsey and Canyon Smith both had big games, scoring 17 each to lead Republic. Chase Hoffman scored 15, Dylan Bekemeier had 11, Tim Brazeal had four, and Brock Yocum had two.
Republic improves to 11-1 overall, and 1-0 in the COC. They play Friday at Marshfield.