Neosho boys to play for 3rd place at Holiday Classic
Dec. 30—NEOSHO, Mo. — Neosho's quest to repeat as tournament champions came to a decisive end on Thursday evening in the semifinals.
The Crooked Oak boys basketball team, from Oklahoma City, held the Wildcats scoreless for more than eight minutes in building a 20-point halftime lead and went on to win 77-49 to advance to Friday's Black Division championship at the Neosho Holiday Classic.
Neosho, 7-2, will meet Monett at noon Friday in the third-place game, while Crooked Oak (9-1) faces off with Huntsville, Arkansas, for first at 5 p.m.
The Wildcats didn't go down easy on Thursday, though.
They opened the third quarter on a 17-7 run to cut the deficit to 10 points with three minutes left in the period before running out of steam.
"When you're down that much and you have to fight that hard to get back, you just run out of gas, I suppose," Neosho coach Cody Culp said. "I felt like energy-wise (Carter) Baslee, Isaiah Green and Brock (Franklin) kind of brought it. If they're the ones bringing the energy and they've got to play every minute, the car runs out of gas."
Neosho led 5-4 roughly two minutes in after a basket by Green, but then went scoreless its next 15 possessions until Carter Fenske made a 3-pointer with 5:40 left in the second quarter — and that made it a 23-8 game.
The Wildcats committed seven turnovers in the first quarter and 10 in the first half and went to the locker room trailing 42-22 at the break.
They were a different team when they came back out, at least for five minutes. Fenske got it to 15 on a 3-pointer and then made it 48-35 with a basket at the 4:19 mark of the third.
Kael Smith scored to get it to 12, and then he grabbed an offensive rebound and scored again to make it 49-39 with three minutes left in the quarter.
Crooked Oak finished the quarter on a 9-1 run to take back momentum and outscored Neosho 19-8 in the fourth. The Wildcats, after shooting 60% (9-15) in the third, made just 3 of 16 attempts (18.8%) in the fourth — and they shot 1-of-12 from 3-point range.
Overall, Neosho made 3 of 21 attempts from 3-point range; Crooked Oak, meanwhile, was 8 for 14 from beyond the arc, and Elijah Garcia made six of those.
Now the Wildcats look to bounce back against Monett.
"That's what I told them," Culp said. "You have an option. You can lay down or you can show up tomorrow at noon and avenge yourself. There's not really any other option."
Green led Neosho with 13 points and four assists. Fenske scored 12 and Smith had 11. The Wildcats were out-rebounded 31-23 and made 6-of-15 attempts at the free throw line.
The Ruf Nex of Crooked Oak had three players in double figures. Tymie Adkins-Freeman had 24 points, four assists and three steals. Daevion Hill scored 22 and grabbed 13 rebounds and three blocks. and Garcia scored 20.
They shot 19 of 26 at the line.
