Republic Lady Tigers win two more COC games, now 4-0

Republic went on a 10–0 run to begin the fourth quarter, and that was the decisive stretch in a 40–29 win at Branson. It was the second game in a row that the Lady Tigers opened the game with offensive struggles, only to turn it around in the fourth quar- ter to pull out a victory.
Republic had a hard time getting anything going against the match-up zone deployed by Branson. The Lady Tigers shot the ball poorly from the outside and had difficulty getting the ball inside against the taller Lady Pirates’ lineup.
“Honestly, I didn’t think that zone would give us that much trouble. It cre- ates a little bit of havoc, but still—I thought we looked timid. I didn’t think we looked very aggressive attacking it,” said coach Kris Flood.
After scoring four quick points to begin the game, Republic failed to score for the rest of the first quarter. The game was tied 4–4 after one period, thanks partly to a handful of missed la- yups and close-range shots by Branson. The Lady Pirates grabbed a 13–11 lead at halftime.
In the third quarter, Flood went with a smaller and quicker lineup. That move cut down on the turnovers but didn’t solve Republic’s outside shoot- ing woes, even though Republic managed to tie the the game 23–23 head- ing into the fourth quarter.
On Republic’s first pos- session of the final period, Jazzy Kirby fed Clara Fronabarger for a driving layup. On the next possession, Jazzy Kirby found Jade Kirby under the basket to give Republic a four point lead. Republic followed that up with three pointers by Halli Bartels-meyer and Jade Kirby to take a 10-point lead.
“We finally had some shots fall for us there. It was a little reminiscent of Saturday. We hit a couple of threes back-to-back, and that all of a sudden picked us up,” Flood said.
It took more than five minutes for Branson to score its first bucket of the fourth quarter. Republic outscored Branson 17–6 in the final eight minutes.
Scoring
Halli Bartelsmeyer 19, Clara Fronabarger 8, Jade Kirby 8, Jazzy Kirby 3, Carle Ward 2
Republic 53 Carthage 34 Halli Bartelsmeyer continued her hot streak, scoring 21 points to lead Republic to an easy vic- tory at Carthage, 53–34. Bartelsmeyer has averaged nearly 22 points per game in Republic’s last three games.
At Carthage, Republic’s defense helped it get off to a fast start. The defense held Carthage to just three points in the first quarter, thanks largely to full-court pressure that made it difficult for Carthage to get the ball into the frontcourt.
“[Carthage] made a slight lineup adjustment . They went a little more guard-heavy,” said Flood. “Once we saw some of those match-ups ... we thought ‘We’ll just come out and go a little bit, and maybe get the tempo up, and maybe that will help us come out of the gate.’” The only Carthage field goal in the first quarter came on a fast-break basket after a breakdown in the Republic press.
Eight different players scored for Republic. The Lady Tigers improved to 13–7 overall and 4–0 in the Central Ozark Conference.
Scoring
Halli Bartelsmeyer 21, Jade Kirby 9, Clara Frona- barger 6, Jazzy Kirby 5, Shealyn Barrett 4, Delaney Smith 4, Carle Ward 2, Anna Bell 2