By Denise Tucker (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
REPUBLIC – Even though they had been off “live play” for 13 days due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Willard Lady Tigers didn’t miss a beat in a 64-51 win over Republic to remain unbeaten in the Central Ozark Conference on Tuesday night.
Willard improved to 17-1 overall and 4-0 in the COC, and is off to one of the best starts in program history.
“The focus was to get back to how we were playing before we went on our quarantine,” said junior Addy Adamson, who led Willard with 18 points, including four 3-pointers. “We were playing at our top speed before we got on quarantine – that was two weeks ago, I think, because last week was our first week back and we just haven’t been up to speed.
“Before we got on quarantine, we were at our best basketball so far in the year. So, that was our goal, to get back to how we were playing.”
And, that is shooting the ball – and shooting it well. The Willard Lady Tigers hit 14 3s for the game (17 is No. 5 for a single game in the MSHSAA record book) – four apiece in the first and second quarters and three apiece in the third and fourth quarters.
“That’s a big part of our attack,” said Willard coach JJ Adamson. “We don’t have much size, so we just have to try and use what skills we have to give us an advantage. And, our girls do a great job in practice, shooting a lot and trying to perfect their form and do a great job of staying confident. I think you saw that down the stretch.
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“Like Kailyn Washington – most people think those are not good shots coming down. But we want our kids to be confident enough to shoot those, and that’s just kind of what makes us go. Now some day, it may come back and burn us, but we appreciate the courage it takes to shoot those.”
That courage showed as Willard beat the buzzer at the end of both the first and second quarters, when Morgan Hall hit the first one to put Willard up 17-13, followed by Brielle Adamson’s to give the Lady Tigers a 38-31 advantage going into halftime.
It seemed like each time Republic (13-7, 4-1) would make a run to cut into the lead, Willard had an answer.
“Those are ones that really kind of bite you,” Republic coach Kris Flood said of Willard’s buzzer-beaters. “But you know, they shot the ball well and we kind of contributed to that a little bit. We didn’t rotate very well defensively and they got an awful lot of looks that were wide open.
“But give them credit, they hit them and then we really shot ourselves in the foot. I think we counted 20 turnovers in the first half, and you can’t do that against good teams.”
In spite of the battle with COVID, Willard has not lost since Dec. 31, 2020, when the Lady Tigers fell 77-43 to Kickapoo in the Pink Division championship of the Pink and White Lady Classic. And, the key to maintaining that success has been a team-first mind-set.
“It’s really a credit to our kids,” JJ Adamson said. “We were off live play for 13 days and tonight was the first time we had our full lineup intact. I’m very proud of Vanessa (Wells). She came back and had a great game for us. She does stuff that never enters the stat sheet. She’s just a huge, huge piece of the puzzle for us, and it was great to have her back tonight.
“The thing that I love about this team is that it is an actual team. They don’t get mad, they don’t get jealous. They just want to win. They are genuinely happy for each other when they have success, and it is an absolute joy to be around that.”
Addy Adamson echoed her coach’s/father’s sentiment.
“We share the ball phenomenally,” Addy Adamson said. “Nobody cares about how many points we each have individually, which is our best asset. We just get each other the ball and hype each other up. It’s just so much fun to play with each other.”
Both Willard and Republic still have a tough conference road ahead as Willard faces Carthage, Ozark, Joplin, Branson and Neosho; while Republic has Joplin, Nixa, Webb City and Ozark.
“We had a chance to maybe put it in our hands and it’s now it’s a little bit out of our hands,” Flood said of the COC race. “We’re going to have to not just focus on ourselves, but we’ll have to rely on some other things as far as that goes in conference. But, you just never know any given night, especially with the way things are this year. So, we’ll just keep trying to battle and give ourselves an opportunity and stay right there in it.”
JJ Adamson said he hopes his team continues to take the same mentality it has had into the final weeks of the conference and regular season.
“We can see obviously, you cannot look past anyone,” JJ Adamson said. “We’ve got a tough one against Carthage. It’s our Courtwarming and there will be a ton of distractions. We’ve just got to come to practice tomorrow and get better than we were today because we’ve got a whole bunch of stuff that we can clean up.
“That’s the awesome thing about this group – they’re not scared to be coached. They’re not scared to work. And it’s really, as I said before, it’s a joy to be around.”
Brielle Adamson added 15 points and four 3-pointers for Willard, while Republic’s Kaemyn Bekemeier led all scorers with 25 points to go with 21 rebounds.
WILLARD 64, REPUBLIC 51
Central Ozark Conference game
WILLARD 17-21-13-13—64
REPUBLIC 12-1912-8—51
WILLARD (17-1, 4-0) – Jada Holloman 7, Addy Adamson 18, Brielle Adamson 15, Carolina Crawford 9, Kailyn Washington 8, Morgan Hall 3, Vanessa Wells 2, Ella Sims 2.
REPUBLIC (13-7, 4-1) – Kaitlyn Ragsdale 3, Jazzy Kirby 2, Savana Powell-Goodman 7, Kaemyn Bekemeier 25, Rilynn Finley 8, Regan Holmes 4, Hope Schatz 2.
Republic B 69, Willard B 42
