When Alex Martini grabbed an offensive rebound and scored with 4:12 left in the game, Carthage had its biggest lead of the night and seemed poised to hand Republic its first Central Ozark Conference loss since Tim Brown took over the head coaching position before last season.
But over the next 4:11, Republic responded by outscoring Carthage 10-2. A three-pointer by Carthage just ahead of the buzzer cut the final margin to one, but Republic escaped with a 53-52 victory to stay unbeaten in league play at 4-0.
Senior Joe Rexroat lit up Carthage when it counted. Rexroat scored the first points of Republic’s final surge to make the score 47-45. He followed that up with a three-pointer to give Republic the lead. Carthage would score on its next trip down the floor, but not again until the game was out of reach. Race Looney hit three of four free throws in the final two minutes and Ahlante Askew hit two free throws to help Republic clinch the win.
Brown said his team’s response to adversity in the final four minutes shows they’ve grown throughout the season.
“You look at the five losses we’ve had throughout the season, they were all kind of a mirror image of , where it was about four minutes to go, we were down two possessions, and things kind of went haywire. And we didn’t see that tonight,” said Brown. “We call the last four minutes of the game ‘Winning Time,’ and that means no matter how you’ve played to that point, you put it all aside and you figure out a way to get it done. And we were really good in Winning Time.”
Rexroat led Republic with 18 points. Drew McMillin added fourteen and Looney had 12 to give Republic three players in double figures in scoring.
” is a group that has multiple guys going to play a college sport for their athletic abilities, not necessarily basketball. And we knew it was a very, very athletic and talented group,” Brown said. “I thought our guys did a really good job in the first half of of defending and rebounding and eliminating extra possessions. built an eight-point lead and wish we could have held on to that, but at the same time, you know, you can’t get too upset. Our guys showed a lot of poise.”
Republic is 16-5 overall and 4-0 in the league.
Republic scoring
Joe Rexroat 18, Drew McMillin 14, Race Looney 12, Ahlante Askew 4, Carson Neff 2, Nate Woolford 2, Trevor Porter 1
Turnovers: Republic 8, Carthage 15
Rebounds: Republic 15, Carthage 19
