In a close contest that Republic coach Tim Brown called a “make-or-miss game,” Republic missed a few too many shots in the second half, losing in the district quarterfinals to Springfield Glendale 66-63. Neither team led by more than five points all night, but Glendale got to a few loose balls and made some key shots in the final minutes to advance to the district semifinals. A desperation shot by James Rexroat from about 60 feet away hit the rim but banged off to help Glendale escape with the win on its home floor.
The Tigers controlled the pace against the Falcons, who like to run the court and speed up the game. That didn’t happen most of the night, but a few empty possessions in the second half kept Republic playing catch-up.
“I thought for the most part, the game was played at our pace,” Brown said. “The shots we missed, the ones we took were really good shots, and we missed them. If you told us we would get those shots, I think we would have taken them this time of year. It’s a make-or-miss game.”
Republic patiently worked in its half-court offense, passing the ball and finding gaps in the Glendale zone. But the Tigers couldn’t capitalize on several possessions because of uncharacteristic misses.
On the other end of the floor, Glendale sophomore Amare Witham was Republic’s defensive focus and still managed to score 33 points. Almost half of those points came after Republic freshman Keiran Govan went to the bench with foul trouble in the first half. Govan had gotten his first career varsity start, primarily to guard Witham.
“I thought Keiran Govan did a fantastic job in his first varsity start of frustrating [Witham],” Brown said. “We talked in our pregame, we’ve got to make him waste some possessions, and I thought (Keiran) was able to do that. A good player like that, you’re not going to be able to completely shut him down.” A big factor in the outcome, Brown said, was that Republic was unable to capitalize offensively when Witham was forced into a turnover or a bad shot.
“They were able to get two-possession leads, and we had to kind of chip away to keep it even. We needed one of those loose balls that they kept getting timeouts on to go our way, and for us to capitalize on it,” Brown said. “We just couldn’t seem to find one of those.”
Brenley Hagewood finished with 26 points to lead Republic. Two seniors, James Rexroat and Jordan Douglas, joined Hagewood in double figures with 16 and 14 points, respectively.
The loss marked the final game for four seniors: Rexroat, Douglas, Aslan Ebisch and Owen Fry.
“I’m just thankful for our seniors,” said Brown. “They’re great kids on the court and off the court, high-academic and high-character leaders in our school, and I just appreciate all their hard work and commitment to our program.”
Glendale advances to the district semifinals to face top seed Central. Republic finishes its season with a 15-12 record. Brown said he will remember this year’s team for characteristics that aren’t especially common.
“We had different lineups and different groups that we played, and they all stayed positive. They all were accountable for themselves and they also pulled for each other,” he said. “Those are two things that I’m probably most proud of with this group, and those are two things that don’t always happen.”
Score by Quarters
Glendale 12 24 16 14 – 66
Republic 15 21 15 12 – 63
Individual Scoring
Brenley Hagewood 26, James Rexroat 16, Jordan Douglas 14, Aslan Ebisch 5, Keiran Govan 2