Senior Brock Yocum saved his best for last.
Yocum scored a career-high 29 points to lead Republic to a 65-57 win over Branson at home on Senior Night. Fellow senior Brady McGill added 19 for the Tigers, who improved to 13-12. They finished Central Ozark Conference play with a 5-2 record, good for a third-place finish.
The win came on a night when the Tigers honored five seniors: Yocum, McGill, Tim Brazeal, Jace Duvall, and Blake Fanning.
“There was a time right in the middle of the season, right around the Blue & Gold, right after it, that we weren’t playing very well. Those seniors could have gone south in a hurry, and could have pouted and whined…and made the rest of the season miserable,” says coach Trevyor Fisher. “But credit them for having a great attitude every single day, working hard in practice, being an example for our younger kids, and you can see it’s paying off now towards the end of the year.”
For Yocum, the career-high scoring night was secondary to the outcome on the scoreboard.
“It feels good that I got the career high, but we got the win. We got third in the COC, so that’s a pretty good win,” Yocum says. “That was a big win for us to end the year, heading into districts.”
Branson came into the game with a 16-9 record and an opportunity to tie Republic for third in the conference. Fisher says it’s important for his team to pick up a win over a “quality team” in their final regular-season game.
“They beat Helias. They hung in there for Nixa for 3 1/2 quarters,” Fisher says. “To be able to come out on Senior Night and play as well as we did, and make enough plays down the stretch, that’s a huge deal going into the post-season.”
The Tigers got off to a slow start, falling behind 20-13 at the end of the first quarter. But they picked up the pace in the second quarter, and started hitting some shots, outscoring the Pirates 22-12 to take a 35-32 lead into the break. Yocum had 15 points at halftime, and McGill had 11.
Yocum added 11 more points in third quarter, including his fifth and final three-pointer of the night, as Republic pushed its lead to 50-46. The Tigers outscored Branson 15-11 in the final period, including seven of eight free throws, to secure the victory.
In addition to Yocum and McGill’s 38 combined points, Republic got six from Ty Stevens, four from Tristan Ollar, Two apiece from Blake Fanning, Mitch Coiner, and Travis Sly, and one from Tim Brazeal.
The Tigers also assured themselves of at least a .500 finish with the win, improving to 13-12 as they head into the playoffs. District play gets underway next week in Republic with a game against Neosho.