Republic exits district tournament in semifinal round

The Republic boys basketball team’s season came to an end Friday night as Kickapoo pulled away for a 46–32 victory in the Class 6 District 5 semifinals. The defeat capped a 23–5 season that featured championship trophies from both the Republic Invitational and Blue & Gold Tournament.
Before falling to the second-seeded Chiefs, Republic put on a defensive clinic in Wednesday’s quarterfinal matchup against Ozark. The Tigers controlled that contest from start to finish, securing a 58–25 win at Nixa. The stifling defense limited Ozark to eight points after halftime, with only three coming in the final period. Ozark shooters converted just two of 19 field goal attempts in the second half.
“Anytime you can hold a team to 25 points, it says a lot about the character of your basketball team,” said coach Tim Brown. “I thought we were fantastic tonight on the defensive end, on the backboards. Everything we preach… It’s who we’ve been.”
Brown credited the complete team effort for the defensive showing.
“We said coming into it, they had two guys that could really score the ball, (Hudson Roberts and Kylan Pickeren). And we said it’s going to take not just us winning our individual matchup, but everybody else who’s not guarding them doing their job,” Brown said. “Bren, I thought, guarded (Roberts) really well. KG guarded (Pickeren) really well. But I thought Dav (Parks) and Brody (Blades) were amazing in their gaps defensively.”
The quarterfinal victory featured a big offensive performance from Hagewood, who tallied 25 points including four three-pointers - single-handedly matching Ozark’s team total. CJ Uhl and Davin Parks contributed 16 points each as Republic built an early 10–0 advantage and never looked back.
Friday’s semifinal against Kickapoo proved more challenging. After briefly taking a 15–14 lead on a Blades three-pointer in the second quarter, Republic watched the Chiefs close the half on a 7–0 run. Kickapoo’s defensive focus effectively neutralized Hagewood, holding Republic’s leading scorer without a point before halftime.
“We left some points on the board throughout the game,” said Brown. “We could have closed out that first half and not been down six. We had the lead and we had to grind a little bit. CJ was in foul trouble.”
The Tigers showed fight after the break when Hagewood finally broke through with five quick points to narrow the gap to 21–20. But Kickapoo responded immediately and maintained their edge throughout the second half. A Blades three-pointer early in the fourth quarter brought Republic within four at 33–29, but the Chiefs answered with a decisive 13–3 run to secure the victory.
Blades and Parks paced Republic with nine points each in the season finale, while Hagewood added eight - all after halftime. His two three-pointers established a new school single-season record with 85, surpassing Drew McMillin’s previous mark of 84 from the 2019–20 campaign.
“Our kids played hard. And I can honestly say we squeezed everything out of our group this year,” Brown said. “We never talked about what we didn’t have. We always talked about what we did have. And we found a way more times than we didn’t. It was a special group.”
The contest marked the final appearance in Tiger uniforms for five seniors: Hagewood, Ryder Davis, Parks, Kaden Howard and CJ Uhl.
“Our seniors set the table for us. And it started this summer,” Brown said. “And they were great big brothers to our underclassmen. It probably started even last year, just with the way they all played… and how they handled adversity, and how they propelled that into the season that they had this year.”