By Jordan Burton (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
Ozark is playing lights out basketball, and Quinn Nelson is right at the forefront.
The 6-foot-3 senior guard continued his hot shooting, torching Parkview for 27 points to lead the Tigers to a 64-34 rout of Parkview on Friday at Ozark High School.
Nelson is averaging 26.8 points over his last five games. Ozark is 3-2 in that stretch with the losses coming to nationally-ranked Oak Hill Academy and Wasatch Academy by a combined 20 points. Hitting six more 3-point field goals on Friday, Nelson has been in a zone to say the least.
“He’s being aggressive right now,” said Ozark head coach Mark Schweitzer. “In our two losses at the Blue and Gold he got D’ed up pretty hard by Republic and he was passive in his shot selection. After that we had a week off and he had a lot of time to think about things.
“When you’re ‘the man’ you gotta be ‘the man’ and there are no nights off. It’s no different with me in this job, anytime we lose it’s my fault. When you want the spotlight on you then you’ve got to accept having it in the good times and bad. We talked about that a lot and I think he took it to heart and he’s been extremely aggressive since then.”
CLICK HERE FOR PHOTOS OF THE GAME
Nelson scored 20 of his points during the second and third quarter where Ozark outscored Parkview 43-20, matching the Vikings single-handedly. But, sometimes lost in Nelson’s scoring barrages is just how good Ozark has been everywhere else.
Seven different players scored on Friday for the Tigers during those pivotal middle quarters, giving Schweitzer an element of balance and depth that not many expected coming into this season. Especially without senior guard Curt Gracey.
On Friday that depth allow Schweitzer to bring defensive heat from different looks.
“I thought our pressure really wore them down. Our depth again proved that its capable of sustaining runs and drives,” said Schweitzer. “We can keep it going and come in with fresh legs and not skip a beat. Our depth helps us and it showed again and I’m pretty pleased with the results.”
Keying that defense was senior Payton Nichols, who has had no issue all season drawing the opposing team’s best player regardless of position.
On Friday that was 6-foot-5 Parkview junior Tyem Freeman, who entering the game averaging 24.3 points. Nichols held the future D-1 wing to 18 points, six of which were scored in the first half.
Offensively, Nichols finished with 10 points, joining Nelson as the only other Tiger in double figures.
“He’s got really good hands, he’s got long arms and he can get to balls you don’t expect him to get to,” said Schweitzer. “He moves his feet, he’s got good instincts and he’s smart – which really helps. Tyem is a great talent. He’s one of the best players in the area and he’s going to go play Division One basketball somewhere.
“He can defend 1-5. He’s a great player and we’re happy to have him. Hopefully his offers start coming too.”
The Vikings have now lost four of their last six games, still adjusting to life without sophomore point guard Dontae Taylor. Taylor leads the team in assists (3.5) and is second on the team in points per game (13.6) and steals (1.8).
“Yeah not having your PG is tough,” said Parkview coach Landon Cornish. “Tae is the guy who gets us settled, he handles pressure and runs our offense. Guys are having to try to learn different roles and work through things against tough competition. I’m proud of their effort and continuing to work hard and keep after it. Our kids didn’t quit, we will all get better. We hope to get him back sometime next week.”
Meanwhile, Ozark continues to put the rest of the Ozarks and the entire state on notice after an admirable run in the Bass Pro Tournament of Champions. Typically, a grueling tournament that has broken local teams, the Tigers seem to be thriving through the experience.
Schweitzer believes the tournament has changed his program’s approach to basketball, something that could be useful with a brutal stretch of games coming up.
The Tigers will host SLUH and visit Webb City, before a brutal stretch of home games against Glendale, Nixa and Willard.
“In the TOC we stopped worrying about everything except what’s right in front of us. We’re not worried about wins and losses, we’re worried about possessions and the Tournament of Champions taught us that because you can’t really worry about wins and losses when you’re going up against Oak Hill Academy, you’ve got to find something to rally around.
That’s something that we’ve all learned and we’re doing it together. Hopefully we can continue this with a huge stretch of games coming up. This will really make or break our run and if we manage to get through it all with wins then I’d say people need to look out.”
