“Just Ugly” — Republic Whips Webb City Despite Woeful Shooting Night

For three quarters, there were two constants in the game between Republic and conference rival Webb City: Webb City turned the ball over and Republic missed its outside shots.

In the fourth quarter, Webb City kept turning the ball over, but Republic finally made the occasional jumpshot to pull away for a 21 point victory, 60-39. Brooke Stanfield led the Lady Tigers with 13 points. Brylee Argo and Alexis Ladwig added 12 each. Taylor Fergen had 11.

Webb City committed 30 turnovers in the game, but they hung around because Republic couldn’t make its shots for most of the night. At one point, the Lady Tigers had missed 15 of 16 three point attempts. But they made three of their last six when it counted, and that made the difference.

It was the first game since Republic had ascended to the No. 1 statewide ranking in the Class 5 coaches poll. Coach Kris Flood says that may have contributed to way the Lady Tigers played.

” don’t have anything to lose, and a lot of teams are playing like that. I think we are playing tight and we are just going to have to get over that,” he says. “It was ugly – just ugly. Hopefully we can start getting in a rhythm.

“We are seeing some teams switching up the defenses and things like that. That’s creating a little bit of havoc. We’ve got to be able to adjust to that,” Flood says.

Webb City led 14-12 at the end of the first quarter. At halftime, Republic had regained the lead, 23-18. The teams played even in the third quarter, and it was 36-31 heading into the final period. Throughout the first three quarters, it was a strong performance at the free throw line that maintained Republic’s lead. They made 24 of 28 free throws for the night.

In the fourth quarter, Alexis Ladwig hit two three-pointers and scored 10 of her 12 points to fuel Republic. The Lady Tigers outscored Webb City 24-8 in the final quarter to win going away.

Throughout the game, one constant for Republic’s offense was Brylee Argo. She had key offensive rebounds and put-backs to pick up the offense when the outside shots weren’t falling.

“If we aren’t hitting from the three-point line, which we rely on a lot, it’s just important that the post players crash the boards… so we can score or kick it back out for that second chance shot,” Argo says.

In addition to the four players in double figures, Republic got five each from Jordan Kabetske and Jade Sawyer. Logan Flood added two.

Kris Flood says it’s important for the Lady Tigers to continue improving. He thinks that might be easier when they begin to play more games again. They have three games on the schedule for next week.

“Hopefully we can get better as we go because we are getting to the point where if we have a bad game like this in the wrong spot, we’ll be done,” he says.

Despite their struggles Thursday night, Republic is now 16-1, ranked No. 1 in Class 5, and 2-0 in the Central Ozark Conference. The Lady Tigers play next Monday night at Neosho.

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