Joplin loses on final shot to Webster Grove at Pittsburg tournament
Jan. 20—PITTSBURG, Kan. — The Joplin Eagles boys basketball team lead for the vast majority of its second-round game with the Webster Groves Statesmen in the Bill Hanson Memorial Tournament in Pittsburg on Friday, but they lost that lead at the most important point time of the game.
Webster Groves sophomore Carl Whitehead Jr., who missed the first free throw of a one-and-one with 9 seconds left, completed an eight-point, fourth-quarter Statesmen comeback on a jumper with less than three seconds left that sent Joplin to the 59-58 loss.
Joplin didn't have time to inbound the ball and drive the length of the court and fell to 8-7 on the season.
"We had our chance at the free throw line and we just didn't get stops there at the end when we needed," said Joplin Head Coach Bronson Schaake. "They closed on us when they needed to. It's a tough one."
Joplin only trailed in the first minute and then in the final 2.4 seconds.
The Eagles led by as much as 11 in the third quarter and eight with 3:06 left in the game, but Webster Grove outscored Joplin 14-5 down the stretch to take the win.
"That's a game that we lose in December," said Webster Grove Head Coach Justin Mathis. "I told our guys that last night against Blue Valley Northwest, which is one of the best teams in Kansas, we showed a lot more fight that we had when we got down five or seven in the last minute and a half. I told them in a time out with two minutes left tonight, you planted the seed last night and you're going to see the results of that tonight."
Joplin Junior All Wright led all scorers in the game with 30 points, while senior Terrance Gibson had 11, junior Quin Renfro had six, junior Whit Hafer had four, sophomore Collis Jones had three and junior Hobbs Gooch and sophomore Davin Thomas had two each.
Webster Grove was led by Whitehead and Junior Iziah Purvey with 16 each.
