The Republic Lady Tigers used a balanced offensive attack to capture a district title with a 60-50 win over top-seeded McDonald County Friday.
The game started bizarrely, with McDonald County scoring a basket at Republic’s end of the floor on its opening possession. The opening tip went out of bounds and officials awarded the ball to the Lady Mustangs. McDonald County in-bounded the ball to an unguarded Ryan Parsons, wide open under the basket. But Parsons was under Republic’s basket, and scored for the Lady Tigers.
McDonald County rebounded to take a lead at the end of the 1st quarter, 12-11. Republic jumped on top in the 2nd quarter, outscoring the Lady Mustangs 17-12, and taking a 28-24 lead at halftime. At the end of the 3rd quarter, Republic led 40-36. They outscored McDonald County 20-14 down the stretch to capture the title.
Senior Courtney Gardner scored 13 points to lead the Lady Tigers. Kyra Ramsey scored 11; and Payton Rayl and Elle Aston had 9 points apiece. Sarah Kreul scored 6, Alex Botkin had 5, Kyla Fieth added 4, and Kayce Duvall scored 3 for Republic.
Ryan Parsons had 24 points for the Lady Mustangs, who end their season with a 13-13 record.
Republic advances to the sectional round next Wednesday at Joplin. Their opponent won’t be determined until Saturday.