Republic Tiger basketballers enter holiday with back-to-back losses

Republic lost two games in their final tune- ups before the holiday tournament season. On the road, Republic lost to Jefferson City Helias 71-58. At home two nights later against Bolivar, the Tigers dropped a 54-38 decision.
At Helias, Republic jumped ahead 12-4 before defensive lapses let Helias climb back into the game. The Crusaders used an 18-2 run that spanned the first and second quarters to build a sizable lead at halftime,
34-23, then cruised in the second half.
“We give up 24 points in the second quarter ... then 70 in the game, we’re not going to win very many games,” Brown said. “We talked about on our scouting report, they’re a three-point shooting team that rebounds really well, and for some reason we’re not getting that message across to our guys. So it’s something we’re going to have to fix for sure in the next coming days.”
Race Looney finished with a season-high 20 points before fouling out in
the fourth quarter. Tucker Thomas had a big night as well, scoring 16 points. Helias held Drew McMillin to his lowest scoring output of the season, with 10 points.
Helias dominated on the boards, out-rebounding Republic 25-12.
Republic Scoring: Race Looney 20, Tucker Thomas 16, Drew McMillin 10, Nate Woolford 6, Ahlante Askew 3, Oliver Welch 3
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The defensive effort by Republic was better at home against Bolivar, but the offense couldn’t get going in a
54-38 loss. The Liberators outscored Republic 37-19 in the second half.
Despite the loss, Brown said he was more pleased with his team’s effort.
“We tried to come out and do some things right defensively and grind the way we’ve done in the past. We were unlucky on some things offensively, even early on in the game. We kind of felt like things would eventually go our way.”
But a Bolivar three- pointer at the end of the third quarter gave the Liberators a six-point lead –– their biggest
of the night to that point –– and helped set the stage for a dominating fourth quarter.
“They make a big shot there and I felt like we just continued to struggle to get a big basket when we needed one,” Brown said. “We started to lose a little bit of our edge and we had to come out and chase––things that we’re not necessarily really good at with our personnel and our style of play.”
Bolivar got 32 combined points from its two 6’5” post players. Senior Brodie Pollock had 10 and freshman Kyle Pock scored 22.
Only three players scored for Republic. Race Looney led Republic for the sec- ond straight game with 15 points. Drew McMillin had 14 points. Tucker Thomas added nine.
Republic is 3-3 heading into the Blue & Gold Tournament. They’ll play Mountain Grove at 2 p.m. Dec. 26 at JQH Arena.
Republic scoring: Race Looney 15, Drew McMillin 14, Tucker Thomas 9