Brenley Hagewood caught fire in the second half to smoke upset-minded Joplin in a 60-42 win at home to open the Central Ozark Conference season Thursday. Hagewood scored 14 points in the third quarter (and 24 in the game) and helped fuel a 12-0 run that made the difference in the third and fourth quarters.
(See all of tonight’s scores on our Absolute Roofing ScoreTracker.)
For most of the first half, Joplin stayed close thanks to forward Whit Hafer, who made nearly everything he shot, from inside the lane and from beyond the three-point arc. Hafer had 15 points at halftime and the Tigers led by only seven points, 28-21. In contrast to Joplin, the Tigers got balanced offense in the first half, with six different players scoring. Hagewood, CJ Uhl, and Davin Parks all had six points at halftime. James Rexroat fed Uhl with nifty passes around the basket on back-to-back plays late in the second quarter as the Tigers briefly built a 10-point lead.
In the third quarter, Republic again built a double-digit lead only to watch the Eagles climb back into the game. Joplin cut the lead to 40-34 with 1:30 left in the period before Republic ripped off 12 straight points. The third quarter ended with a pinpoint pass from Rylee Tan to Hagewood, who made a layup in the final seconds to give Republic an 11-point lead.
By the time the 12-0 run was over, Republic led 52-34. Joplin cut the lead back to 10 points at one time, but that’s as close as the Eagles would get. Republic outscored Joplin 25-8 in the fourth quarter to put the game away.
Republic improves to 9-5 overall and 1-0 in the COC. Joplin is 2-12 (0-1).
Score by Quarters
Joplin 14 7 13 8 – 42
Republic 17 11 17 25 – 60
Individual Scoring
Brenley Hagewood 24, Rylee Tan 12, CJ Uhl 6, Davin Parks 6, Jordan Douglas 6, James Rexroat 5, Aslan Ebisch 1