Republic sharpshooter Jordan Douglas has seldom been as sharp as he was Tuesday night in Branson. Jordan lit up the Pirates for 25 points, including seven three-pointers, to lead the Tigers to a 67-49 victory on the road. Douglas made his first shot of the night and didn’t slow down until halftime. He had 19 points at the break, with five treys during that time.
“I felt good coming into warm-ups, and as soon as the first one went through, I just felt like my shot was on point, and there wasn’t really anyone…that could guard me to get a hand up in time…to cause a miss,” Douglas said. “So I just caught it in rhythm every time, and it went down for me tonight.”
Republic doubled Branson’s score in each of the first two quarters, outscoring in the Pirates 18-9 in the first quarter and 24-12 in the second. That added up to a 42-21 lead midway through the game.
But Branson came out firing in the third quarter and threatened to make things close. Jayce Culver made three three-pointers and scored the first nine points of the half to cut Republic’s lead to 42-30. Just when things were getting interesting again, the Tigers bounced back. Republic reeled off 10 points in a row in response, building its biggest lead of the night at 52-30.
The Pirates had one more run in them. Near the end of the third period, Branson started a 9-0 run that cut the lead to 13 at 55-42. That’s as close as the Pirates would get the rest of the way.
Douglas’s big night was made possible by excellent inside-out passing by his teammates, with James Rexroat, Davin Parks, and CJ Uhl taking turns getting him the ball as the defense collapsed around them in the middle. Rexroat also had his share of points, finishing with a season-high 15 to join Douglas in double figures.
The win marks the eighth time in a row the Tigers have beaten Branson. The Pirates’ last win over Republic was in 2016.
The Tigers improve to 12-7 overall and 2-0 in the Central Ozark Conference. They’ll travel to Carthage to play Friday night in a boys/girls supernight. We will carry both the boys and girls games live.
Score by Quarters
Branson 9 12 15 13 – 49
Republic 18 24 13 12 – 67
Individual Scoring
Jordan Douglas 25, James Rexroat 15, Brenley Hagewood 9, CJ Uhl 6, Davin Parks 4, Rylee Tan 3, Aslan Ebisch 3, Cason Bekemeier 2