Keiran Govan took the opening tip, flew to the basket, and threw down a dunk to give Republic a lead it would never relinquish. Fifty-two points later — the last two on another Govan slam — the Tigers had buried Ozark 52-36 in the Class 6 District 5 quarterfinals Tuesday night.
Republic (19-8) never trailed. The score was never tied. And Ozark, a 19-win team coming in, managed just 10 first-half points against a defense that head coach Tim Brown graded at “A double plus.”
“We knew what we were capable of,” Brown said. “We’ve been defending really well. … This group, they’ve shown how resilient and tough they can be.”
The Tigers jumped on Ozark early. After Govan’s opening dunk, AJ Uhl hit a three-pointer and scored again to push the lead to 7-0. Hendrix Haymes scored Ozark’s only two field goals of the quarter, but Trenten Coleman and Braxton Lundberg each scored to close the first at 11-4.
Republic’s defense tightened from there. An 8-0 run that started late in the first quarter and carried into the second stretched the lead to 15-4. Brody Blades scored three points during the spurt, and Govan added a bucket. Slater Howard buried a three-pointer later in the half to push the lead to 21-7.
Ozark managed one three-pointer from Brandon Brown before the break. At halftime it was 21-10, and the Tigers had held Ozark to 3-of-11 shooting from the field in the first two quarters.
“It’s deceiving sometimes when you have an eleven point lead and the other team only has ten points,” Brown said. “But I think in this case we were pretty comfortable with it.”
Brown singled out Lundberg for his work on Haymes, Ozark’s post presence. Lundberg finished with just two points, but his defensive assignment was one of the game plan’s keys.
“I’ve got to give Braxton Lundberg a shout out. He was fantastic tonight,” Brown said. “We talked about taking away (Haymes) in the post, and he did such a good job on that matchup — and then he did some other things stepping out and helping on the perimeter.”
Ozark made its only real push in the third quarter. After Republic built a 33-16 lead on another Howard three and a string of free throws, Kylan Pickren hit back-to-back threes to cut it to 33-22. But that was as close as Republic would let Ozark get.
Republic outscored Ozark 19-14 in the fourth, with Blades going 5-for-5 from the free throw line down the stretch and Uhl adding three more points. The Tigers hit 18 of 30 free throws for the game, a volume that reflected how often they got to the basket. Ozark attempted just five.
Four Republic players scored in double figures or close to it. Blades and Uhl each had 12, Govan finished with 11, and Howard added nine — all on three-pointers and free throws.
Pickren led Ozark with 14 points, hitting four threes in the second half.
Republic has won four straight and six of its last seven. A year ago in this same round, the Tigers held Ozark to 25 points. Tuesday was more of the same.
“I couldn’t be more proud of their ability to be ready to play, ability to execute, and ability to compete,” Brown said.
The Tigers advance to face top-seeded Kickapoo (22-5) Thursday at 5:30 p.m.
Score by Quarters
Ozark 4 6 12 14 — 36
Republic 11 10 12 19 — 52
Republic Scoring
Brody Blades 12, AJ Uhl 12, Keiran Govan 11, Slater Howard 9, Trenten Coleman 6, Braxton Lundberg 2
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