Republic broke out of its offensive slump and earned a milestone victory, defeating Camdenton 73-52 in the Pink & White Tournament at Drury University Friday.
The win marked Republic’s first of the season and the first career victory as head coach for Tori Mooneyham. The Lady Tigers’ 73-point output nearly doubled their previous season high.
The fifth-seeded Lady Tigers broke open a close game with a 16-0 run in the second quarter, turning a one-point lead into a 34-17 advantage. Republic’s 43 first-half points were just one shy of their previous season-high for an entire game.
“I think it took us just about a quarter to kind of get adjusted to the physicality of the game,” Mooneyham said. “We knew they were going to guard hard and they came at us and it just took us a little bit to kind of figure that out.”
Lanney Strong led Republic with 19 points, and Sammi Watson added 13, including back-to-back three-point plays during the decisive second-quarter run.
“Once we figured out how to play against their defense and we were attacking the basket more and we were getting in the action more, it created a lot of shots for us,” Watson said.
Strong said the offense found its rhythm after a slow start. “Once we just finally got some momentum … we could actually just run our offense instead of panicking,” she said. “Once we got in that, I feel like we were really able to create looks that we want to create.”
Kinzie Vavruska led Camdenton with 21 points.
Republic (1-5) advances to face the Rogersville-Bolivar winner Saturday at 2 p.m.
Score by Quarters
Camdenton 15-11-11-15-52
Republic 18-25-15-15-73
Camdenton Scoring
Kinzie Vavruska 21, Madison Sykora 8, Addison Knoeck 6, Chloe Caffey 4, Mia McGuire 4, Kacie Prettyman 4, Alyssa Farris 3, Blair Schwantes 2
Republic Scoring
Lanney Strong 19, Sammi Watson 13, Josie Stalzer 9, Cora Cutbirth 8, Addie Brown 8, Awbree Berning 7, Annabelle Gerhardt-Hobbs 4, Kaylee Cornelsen 3, Charlie Hagewood 2
