Ozark shredded Republic’s vaunted defense for 74 points Friday night, waltzing to a 23-point victory and dealing Republic its first conference loss of the year, 74-51.
Republic fell behind 9-2 in the opening minutes and never really challenged. The Ozark lead was 17-7 at the end of the first quarter. It ballooned to 37-15 by halftime.
“We just weren’t ready to play tonight,” says coach Trevyor Fisher. “In the first half, there wasn’t one defensive possession where I felt like we forced them to take a shot they didn’t want to take. They took any shot they wanted, and if they missed, it was just because they missed. We didn’t have anything to do with it. Basically, just an embarrassing effort all the way around.”
Republic showed a brief spark of life to start the third quarter. They scored the first seven points of the half and cut the lead to 15. That was as close as they would be the rest of the way. The lead eventually expanded to 28 points before Ozark closed it out.
Tristan Ollar led Republic with 15 points. Treydon Rackley had 11 and Devon Ward had 10. Mitch Coiner scored nine points. Ty Stevens added three, Tyler Phillips scored two, and Cameron Doke had one.
Ozark had four different players in double figures, and six players with at least eight points.
Republic falls to 19-5 overall and 5-1 in the COC with one game remaining.
Despite their loss, the Tigers got a bit of good news after their game ended. Webb City defeated Nixa, knocking the Eagles out of COC title contention. That leaves Branson and Republic as the only one-loss teams in the conference — and they will play with the COC championship on the line next Tuesday night at Branson. Republic Tiger Sports will broadcast that game live.
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