By Brock Sisney (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
MONETT — The Webb City Cardinals went on a 17-2 run in the third quarter and then rattled off seven unanswered points in the fourth to come away with a 64-57 victory Friday night over rival Neosho in the Class 4, District 12 championship game.
Neosho junior Dalton Brodie gave the Wildcats a 30-27 lead on the first two points of the second half and that’s when Webb City began turning Neosho over multiple times in a row and creating transition opportunities and easy baskets for the Cardinals.
Neosho rallied in the fourth quarter as the Wildcats — eight unanswered sparked by consecutive 3-point baskets from Chase Flynn and Kaden Dickens and a bucket from Landon Austin — cut their deficit to 54-52 before the Cardinals extended their lead back to 10 inside the final 30 seconds. Dickens’ potential game-tying 3-point shot rimmed out, though, at 55-52 before the Wildcats had three more empty possessions in a row and the Cardinals took full advantage of their opponent’s missed opportunities.
Webb City and Neosho also battled each other for a Class 4, District 12 title last season and the Cardinals persevered for a 67-65 double overtime victory on their home court. For a time in the fourth quarter Friday night, it looked like the Cardinals and the Wildcats might again have to battle into overtime to determine the district champion.
“The program has a lot of tradition,” Webb City head coach Jason Horn said. “That’s our 20th district title in our program and it’s our third in four years. It says a lot about our seniors. We’ve got a good group of seniors and they were good leaders tonight down the stretch. Neosho, they’ve got a good team and I thought they had a good game plan. Their kids kept battling and hanging around, and they made plays. We were just lucky to make a few more plays at the end.”
The Wildcats remembered their performance the first time they played Webb City this season, and they played a much better game with a district title at stake.
“We got beat by more than 20 the first time (70-49 on February 18),” Neosho head coach Zane Culp said. “We had a game plan coming in and I thought we executed pretty good. There was one run in the third quarter. We were up 30-29 and I think literally in a minute-and-a-half we were down 10. That’s the whole game right there.”
Both coaches agreed Webb City’s 17-2 spurt in the third quarter changed the complexion of the district title game.
“I thought we got the game to our pace,” Horn said. “We were able to get a couple baskets going and then we picked them up full court. We got them sped up a little bit and when they did that, we capitalized on a couple bad passes they made. Just some mistakes that maybe fatigue played in a little bit. Their rotation’s short. Those guys battled, but I thought the whole key to the game was getting it sped up. The first half, they dictated it, it was way slowed down and they were the team getting to the line, but in the second half, we reversed roles.”
“It was the turnovers,” Culp said. “That’s what Webb City does. They force turnovers and there’s runouts for layups.”
Webb City’s Nickhai Howard compiled a rather impressive stat sheet with a team-high 18 points, seven rebounds, seven assists, three steals and one blocked shot. Gary Clinton fell a couple rebounds shy of a double-double with 14 points and eight rebounds, while Cohl Vaden provided a spark off the bench with 14 points. Terrell Kabala added eight points, five rebounds and two assists; Tanner Rogers produced six points and six assists.
Webb City takes a 16-9 overall record into a Class 4 sectional contest Tuesday against Rogersville (20-8) in Nixa. The Cardinals took a 63-52 sectional loss last season against Rogersville.
“They’ve got a good group,” Horn said. “They’ve got some kids back from that Final Four team last year. Our guys are excited. We don’t want to play anybody else.”
Austin netted a game-high 23 points for the Wildcats and Flynn finished in double figures with 10. Brodie added eight points and senior defensive specialist Sam Cook grabbed 10 rebounds before they both fouled out in the final quarter. Senior sharpshooters Mason Gammons and Dickens contributed seven and six points, respectively.
Cook, Dickens, Gammons and Grant Baslee all put on a Neosho Wildcat uniform for the final time.
“All four of them are great leaders and they worked hard,” Culp said. “Sam and Mason are obviously hard to replace, Mason making over 50 3s this year and our second-leading scorer and Sam, there’s not much I can say right now but if you watch Sam, you know what you’re going to miss.”
Neosho finished 13-13 overall.
WEBB CITY 64, NEOSHO 57
Neosho 16 12 9 20 — 57
Webb City 19 8 19 18 — 64
NEOSHO (13-13) — Landon Austin 23, Chase Flynn 10, Dalton Brodie 8, Mason Gammons 7, Kaden Dickens 6, Landon Werneke 3.
WEBB CITY (16-9) — Nickhai Howard 18, Gary Clinton 14, Cohl Vaden 14, Terrell Kabala 8, Tanner Rogers 6, Mekhi Garrard 4.
