West Plains outscored Republic 13-3 in the final minutes of the game to steal a 59-54 win in the opening round of the Republic Invitational Tuesday night. Zach Flippin scored seven points in the 4th quarter to help lead the comeback for West Plains, who trailed 47-38 late in the 3rd quarter before mounting their final charge.
Republic’s Brock Yocum made seven three-pointers and scored 22 points in a losing cause for the Tigers. Four of those came in the first quarter, as both teams came out hot offensively. West Plains led 21-20 after one period.
Things cooled off in the second quarter. The Zizzers outscored Republic 10-7 to take a 31-27 lead into halftime as three starters — Tim Brazeal, Blake Fanning, and Tristan Ollar — rode the bench in foul trouble.
“There was no question we were undermanned. got in foul trouble in the first half, but I thought our guys battled and kept us in the game, within striking distance,” says Fisher.
A turnaround jumper by Ty Stevens at the buzzer circled the rim and fell in to cut a six-point lead down to four as the teams went into the halftime locker room.
The third quarter was big for Republic, who outscored West Plains 20-11 to grab the lead.
“In the the second half, we got into the flow of things,” Fisher says. “We were in such big foul trouble the first half, we never got into a flow, more so defensively than offensively.
The Zizzers tightened down their defense in the final quarter, though, and used a series of second-chance buckets to put the game away.
“It just came down to us not getting stops at the end and giving up offensive rebounds,” says Fisher. “And them getting to the free throw line and us missing free throws on the other end.”
In addition to Yocum’s 22 points, the Tigers got ten points from Fanning, nine from Brazeal, seven from Brady McGill, three from Mitchell Coiner, two from Stevens, and one from Ollar.
Fisher says the Tigers will need to improve their defense and rebounding to make up for the shortage of offensive firepower at times.
“Everything looks better when you make shots. We’ve got to figure out when those shots aren’t going in, can we still get stops, can we still get rebounds and keep ourselves in the game?” he says. “Kind of like what we did in the second quarter today. I thought our defense kind of kept us in it. We’ve just got to keep getting better.”
The Tigers fall to 1-1. They will meet Carl Junction at 5:30 Friday night. West Plains is 1-0, and will play Ozark Friday night.
