Tim Brown talks frequently to his players about “winnin’ time,” the final minutes of the game when good teams make game-changing plays. Tuesday night with the game on the line against Springfield Central, several Tigers stepped up to show they’d been listening.
Republic (11-1) overcame a ten-point deficit in the second half to knock off Springfield Central (8-3) at home, 63-56. The Tigers trailed 34-24 early in the third quarter, but used an 11-0 run to climb back into the game — then outscored the Bulldogs 28-17 in the fourth quarter to pull out a victory.
Bulldog’s ball-pressure man-to-man defense caused the Tigers problems throughout the first half. Central led 25-22 at halftime after each team managed only eight points in the first quarter.
“We knew coming into this game they were going to put a lot of pressure on the ball in the full court and try to push us up the floor. We feld like the game was going to be won on the volleyball court — they do a lot of their damage defensively in that area of the floor,” said Brown. “Our goal was to make them run… offense and not just play in the race track. And I thought we did an okay job.”
Brown said his team seemed “out of sorts” in the first quarter, so he took them back to basics, running some of the motion offense his players had been familiar with in previous seasons. That change helped settle them down and get them into a rhythm, but Central seemed to take control early in the third quarter.
After a 12-0 run gave Central a double-digit lead, the Tigers noticed a potential vulnerability in the Bulldog defense when Khamari Edwards scored two quick buckets inside. Brown switched his lineup, sending James Rexroat onto the floor alongside Edwards for one of the few times all season. With its two big men on the floor, the Tigers climbed out of the hole they were in, scoring 11 straight.
“If you would have told me coming into this that the magic formula against a team that pressures was to play our two post players, I probably wouldn’t have believed you. But our guys did an awesome job, and that was a turning point in the game,” Brown said.
With Republic’s bigger lineup on the floor, the Central defense had to lay off its perimeter pressure, and that opened up more opportunities for the Tiger guards. Ahlante Askew made three three-pointers in the third quarter. His third trey gave Republic a 35-34 lead. It was their first lead since the second quarter. But four consecutive points by the Bulldogs to end the quarter gave them a 39-35 lead as the fourth quarter began.
In the final eight minutes, Republic’s offense scored twice as many points as it had scored in any previous quarter, posting 28 on the Bulldogs. Brenley Hagewood, who scored 12 points in the first half but had been shut out in the third quarter, got in on the act in the fourth. He scored ten more down the stretch to finish with 22. Askew finished with 21 points — 18 of them in the second half.
Republic ran its winning streak to ten in a row. The Tigers return to action Friday at Springfield Catholic.
Score by Quarters
Central 8 17 14 17 – 56
Republic 8 14 13 28 – 63
Individual Scoring
Brenley Hagewood 22, Ahlante Askew 21, Khamari Edwards 6, James Rexroat 5, Gunner Ellison 4, Jordan Douglas 4, Aslan Ebisch 1