By Chad Hayworth (for OzarksSportsZone.com)
Sometimes, the glass slipper ends up a half-size too small.
No. 1 seed Nixa, ranked No. 7 in Class6, overcame a 10-point first-half deficit to defeat No. 2 Hartville, ranked No. 1 in Class 2, 57-50 in the gold bracket championship of the 80th Annual Blue and Gold Tournament on Tuesday at Great Southern Bank Arena.
“Honestly, we had a pretty slow start, and I just kept telling our guys to just kind of stay with it and see if we could get to halftime not being down double-digits,” said Nixa Coach Brock Blansit. “They are just so hard to defend, we just couldn’t guard them straight-up. We had to go to a zone, which we don’t play zone very often, but I thought for us it was the difference in the game, even through they still ended up making 12 threes.”
Nixa (8-1) jumped out to an early 6-3 lead before Hartville (11-1) found its rhythm from beyond the arc. Hartville’s Truett Coryell hit three 3-pointers in the span of a minute and a half, propelling Hartville to a 16-8 lead with 1:46 to play in the opening frame.
Nixa’s Adam McKnight drew a pair of fouls in the final minute of the quarter, hitting all four of his free throws to close the Hartville lead to 16-10 at the end of one.
CLICK HERE FOR PHOTOS OF THE GAME
But Hartville’s prowess from beyond the 3-point line continued, aided by a pair of Nixa offensive fouls that put the ball back into the smaller school’s hands on consecutive trips down-court. Jordan O’Quinn dropped a trey with just under five minutes to play in the half, followed by Boone Garrison’s triple that pushed the Hartville lead to 10, 24-14 with 3:35 to play in the half.
Nixa struggled at times to find consistency offensively, something Blansit attributed to what Hartville was doing on both ends of the floor.
“Every time you play them, it’s going to be a grudge match,” he said. “You gotta get down and play in the mud.”
Nixa’s full-court press began to stress Hartville late in the first half, forcing a couple of turnovers. Nixa capitalized, scoring the final six points of the half, including Ty Kellis’ shot from the right-hand side just before the halftime buzzer, tying the game at 28 each.
Hartville started the second half the same way it played most of the first, with a big 3-pointer, this time from Coryell.
But Nixa answered immediately, scoring eight of the next 10 points for a 36-34 lead with 2:44 to play in the third.
Cogdill hit another three-pointer with just under two minutes to play in the quarter, giving Hartville the lead at 37-36. It would be their last of the ballgame, as back-to-back baskets from Randy Flint (along with a free-throw) and Colt McCoy gave Nixa a 41-37 lead with one quarter to play.
Hartville wouldn’t go away, however, getting baskets from Cogdill and Coryell to cut the lead to 43-42 with 6:33 to play.
But Nixa’s defensive pressure finally wore down the smaller school, and the three-pointers that fell early couldn’t find the bottom of the basket when they were needed most.
Kellis hit three of four free-throws on back-to-back trips to the line late in the game and Braylon Smith added one of two with 16.8 second to play to finish off Hartville.
“These are the games we need to play to get ready for district basketball,” Blansit said. “Our district is absolutely loaded, you are going to have four or five teams with 20 wins, and you are going to have to bring it every night.
“But honestly, we need a break. It’s been a long five days, and we need to get healthy.”
The victory gives Nixa its 13th Blue and Gold championship and its first since 2022.
McKnight led Nixa with 14 points, while Flint and Kellis each added 13 and McCoy had 11. Hartville was led by Cogdill with 17, while Coryell added 12 and O’Quinn and Garrison each had nine.
NIXA 10-18-13-16 – 57
HARTVILLE 16-12-9-13 – 50
Nixa: McKnight 14, Kellis 13, Liddell 13, McCoy 11, Flint 5, Ajoyi 1
Hartville: Cogdill 17, Coryell 12, Garrison 9, O’Quinn 9, Sinning 2, Jones 1
