Republic’s McMillin’s last second layup lifts Tigers over Webb City

Things looked pretty grim for Republic with two seconds left in their game against Webb City Friday. But after a season of near-misses, something broke Republic’s way at the end of a game.

Guard Ahlante Askew lost the ball, chased it down into a crowd, rolled over, sat up, and chucked it into the air from the seat of his pants with about two seconds remaining. Somehow, the ball ended up in the hands of Devon McMillin, who was cutting toward the basket and laid it in off the glass as time expired. The bucket gave Republic a 60-59 victory over the state-ranked Cardinals and set off a celebration for a team that has been on the other end of those close decisions all season long.

"We've had so many of these games all year. We've got ten losses, and I think six of them have been decided by four points or less. And two more have been decided by six or less, but came down to the wire," Brown said. "I told our guys, 'We're due.' And what better way (to win) than for a senior in Devon McMillin, who plays so hard all the time, to not give up on a play and ... score it at the end."

Before McMillin's game-winning layup, the Tigers and Cardinals had locked up in a back-and-forth game that was Republic's tightest of the year, start-to-finish. Webb City outscored Republic 17-16 in the first quarter, and Republic returned the favor in the second, tying the game 33-33 at half. Neither team led by more than five points all night, and that only happened once, when Webb City grabbed a 23-18 lead briefly in the second quarter.

"I'm really proud of our kids. They battled the whole game," said coach Tim Brown. "We battled through some foul trouble in the first half and we kept it tied, and we had some guys step up."

Four different players reached double figures in scoring for Republic. Senior Avery Moody led the way with 21 points and nine rebounds. Freshman Brenley Hagewood, who missed the game at Nixa and has been recovering from that illness all week, scored 14 and grabbed five boards. McMillin had 12 points and Askew had ten.

The win helped Republic erase the memory of a lopsided loss at Nixa earlier in the week. The Tigers shot just 20 percent from the floor in a 57-28 loss. They were just 2-for-18 from three-point range and didn’t even make half their free throws in the loss.

The Tigers ended their week with a 15-10 record, 4-3 in the Central Ozark Conference.