With 4:30 left in the game, Rogersville had cut Republic’s 12-point lead to four, Brock Yocum was writhing on the floor in pain, the Rogersville student section was cheering, and the Wildcats had all the momentum.
At 4:23, Yocum was back on the floor, Canyon Smith drained a clutch three-pointer from the corner, the Rogersville students went silent, and the Tigers were on their way to a 62-54 road victory.
In the first half, tough Tiger defense and Yocum’s shooting made the difference. Yocum poured in four three-pointers and had 14 points at halftime, helping Republic build a 30-22 lead. He finished with 16.
“He did a great job of stepping up and making big shots when he was open, and that’s something he can do, and he’s not afraid to do it,” says coach Trevyor Fisher. “Credit guys for finding him. That’s what he can bring to our team, is another guy who can stretch the defense, and that was a big part of the first half.”
Fisher also points to a stretch in the 2nd quarter where the defense came up big to allow Republic to build a cushion. He says communication on defense is key against a team like Rogersville, and his players did it well most of the night.
“They set a lot of ball screens, and you can’t get screwed up and miscommunicate, and one person switch and the other doesn’t. And I thought we did, for the most part, a pretty good job of that,” Fisher says.
In the 2nd half, Dylan Bekemeier picked up where Yocum left off. Bekemeier scored 16 of his team-high 18 points to help seal the win. Eleven of those points came in the 4th quarter, when Bekemeier was 7-of-8 from the free throw line.
When the game tightened up in the 4th quarter, Fisher says he continued to focus on taking care of the ball and playing tough defense.
“I think more than anything… you’ve just got to be strong with the ball, When you drive it in there, they’re going to try to poke it away,” Fisher says he told his players. “You’ve got to make strong plays, you can’t turn it over. You’ve got to keep your head on the defensive end and you can’t bail them out with stupid fouls. Every timeout we talked about it’s going to take getting stops on the defensive end.”
The Tigers also got 11 points from Canyon Smith, including the momentum-changing trey in the 4th quarter. Cody Geiger was held to 10 by physical Rogersville defense. Chase Hoffmann added four, Dillen Ramsey had two, and Jordan Kerr scored one.
The win advanced the Tigers to the championship game of the Rogersville Tournament, where they’ll play Waynesville Saturday. Waynesville came from behind to beat Ozark Friday night 71-57.
Republic, ranked #1 in Missouri in Class 4, is now 15-1.