By Dana Harding (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
Springfield, Mo. — On a night where Kickapoo needed a strong finish, Sam Wallin stepped into the role quite comfortably.
The 6-foot-3 senior scored 7 of his 11 points in the final quarter Tuesday to help lead the Chiefs to a 56-51 victory over Nixa.
“[Sam] is playing really, really well for us lately, and we ask him to do a lot,” Kickapoo head coach Mitch McHenry said. “He really can guard one through five for us and we ask him, on any given night, sometimes to guard the best perimeter player and sometimes the best post player. We expect him to be playing his best basketball in January and February and he’s doing a good job leading us right now.”
While Wallin’s fourth-quarter finish helped Kickapoo seal the victory, it was Tanner Oetting’s red-hot first-quarter performance that set the early tone for the Chiefs.
Oetting netted a trio of 3-pointers in the opening frame to spark Kickapoo’s 11-0 run to open the contest.
The 6-foot-1 junior attributed the hot start to a little extra burst of energy prior to the game.
“The Kickapoo and Nixa rivalry — it’s really big,” Oetting said. “There’s always a lot of energy in the gym, so to start off like that, shooting the ball, it’s really exciting.”
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After nearly four minutes of play, Nixa senior Jack Sanders finally connected to halt the run.
Kickapoo led 18-10 at the end of the first quarter and 29-26 at the half.
Nixa was able to cut into the Chiefs’ lead thanks to a pair of 3-pointers from freshman Kaleb Wofford and 4 points from junior Luke Roeman.
On the other end of the court, Kickapoo struggled to find its first-quarter form.
“You always look like a better coach when your kids are making shots,” McHenry said. “I think the start was really important for us. After that, we didn’t play the best and kind of quit making shots.”
In the third quarter, it was Nixa’s turn to seize early momentum.
A 9-0 run gave Nixa its first lead of the game at 33-32, and the Eagles were able to stretch that lead to as many as 8 before closing the third quarter up 45-39.
Junior Braeden Combs, senior Nathan Elmer and senior Max Bilbrey combined for 16 points to lead the Nixa third-quarter attack.
McHenry wasn’t surprised by the Nixa comeback.
“Nixa throws four kids out there that can all shoot it,” McHenry said. “They have a lot of kids that are capable of scoring. The big 6-foot-7 kid is kind of their fourth or fifth option, and he really kind of took over the game in the second half.”
The fourth quarter set the stage for Kickapoo’s big run to retake momentum, the lead and the final score.
McHenry attributed the fourth-quarter rally to guard penetration from a pair of underclassmen in freshman Anton Brookshire and sophomore Elijah Bridgers.
“We went to a smaller lineup, and they had to guard out on the perimeter all five guys,” McHenry said. “We relied a little bit more on our ball screens in the second half, and I think that allowed us to get some more paint touches off penetration. But, really, our kids just did a good job of when they were attacking, they were attacking with vision. They weren’t running into someone’s chest; they weren’t running into traffic. If they were getting stopped, they were kicking out to someone for an open shot or another attack.”
Brookshire’s 3-pointer with 1:04 remaining gave the Chiefs the lead for good at 53-51, and a pair of Oetting free throws sealed the victory.
After the game, McHenry praised his team for staying together through the momentum swings.
“We’ve been playing better, together, as a team lately,” McHenry said. “We executed our stuff, we stayed locked in and we just fought and grinded to give ourselves a chance at the end of the game.”
Oetting led the Chiefs with 13 points and was joined in double figures by Wallin’s 11.
Nixa’s Combs led all scorers with 14 points. Bilbrey and Elmer each added 10 points for the Eagles.
Up next for Kickapoo (9-6) is a trip to Tulsa for the Union Tournament on Thursday, Jan. 18. The Chiefs will play Jenks in the opening round. Nixa (9-6) gets a home matchup against Saint Louis University High on Friday, Jan. 19.
Varsity Final: Kickapoo – 56, Nixa – 51
Kickapoo 18 11 10 17 — 56
Nixa 10 16 19 06 — 51
