Tigers finish 19-win season with district loss

Republic's boys basketball season ended with a district semifinal loss to Kickapoo, but not before the Tigers delivered one of their best defensive performances of the year in a quarterfinal rout of Ozark.
 
In the district opener, Keiran Govan set the tone from the opening tip, racing to the basket for a dunk that gave Republic a lead it would never give back. The Tigers rolled from there, burying Ozark 52-36 in the Class 6 District 5 quarterfinals Tuesday night. Ozark, a 19-win team coming in, managed just 10 first-half points against a Tiger defense that head coach Tim Brown graded an "A double plus."
 
"We knew what we were capable of," Brown said. "We've been defending really well."
 
After Govan's opening slam, AJ Uhl hit a three-pointer and scored again to make it 7-0. Hendrix Haymes scored Ozark's only two field goals of the quarter, but Trenten Coleman and Braxton Lundberg each scored to close the first at 11-4.
 
The defense clamped down even further from there. An 8-0 run that bridged the first and second quarters stretched the lead to 15-4. Republic held Ozark to 3-of-11 shooting in the first two quarters.
 
"It's deceiving sometimes when you have an eleven point lead and the other team only has ten points," Brown said. "But I think in this case we were pretty comfortable with it."
 
Brown singled out Lundberg for his defensive work on Haymes, Ozark's post presence. Lundberg finished with just two points, but his assignment was one of the keys to the game plan.
 
"I've got to give Braxton Lundberg a shout out. He was fantastic tonight," Brown said. "We talked about taking away (Haymes) in the post, and he did such a good job on that matchup — and then he did some other things stepping out and helping on the perimeter."
 
Ozark made its only real push in the third quarter. After Republic built a 33-16 lead on another Howard three and a string of free throws, Kylan Pickren hit back-to-back threes to cut it to 33-22. But that was as close as Ozark would get.
 
Republic outscored Ozark 19-14 in the fourth, with Blades going 5-for-5 from the free throw line down the stretch.
 
Blades and Uhl each scored 12 points for Republic. Govan finished with 11. Pickren led Ozark with 14 points, hitting four threes in the second half.
 
The first meeting between Republic and state-ranked Kickapoo had been a 59-26 blowout on Feb. 17. The rematch Thursday in the district semifinals started nothing like it — though the 65-38 final score didn't tell that story.
 
The Tigers held Kickapoo to just seven first-quarter points and took a 9-7 lead into the second quarter. Republic stretched the margin to four early in the period — a far cry from the first game, when the Chiefs had led 35-15 at the half.
 
"I was proud of the way our kids came out and competed tonight," Brown said. "We did everything we could in the first half to give ourselves a chance to stay in the fight. I thought we took care of the ball better and were able to hunt some matchups offensively in the first half."
 
Kickapoo found its footing in the second quarter, rattling off a 10-0 run to turn a two-point deficit into a 22-14 lead. The Chiefs took a 26-19 advantage into the break and blew the game open in the third quarter, outscoring Republic to build a 51-32 lead heading into the fourth.
 
"The third quarter hurt us," Brown said. "They sped us up a little bit, and we were unlucky on a few plays that we really needed to go our way. It seemed like they made us pay on those trips."
 
Keiran Govan led Republic with 18 points. Reese Kimrey matched that total for Kickapoo, hitting four of six three-point attempts.
 
Republic's season ended at 19-9. The Tigers claimed the COC West championship and won the Bolivar Liberator Tournament along the way.
 
"Going 19–9 with the schedule we play, winning the COC West, and bringing home a regular season tournament championship says a lot about our players and our program," Brown said.
 
The game was the last for Republic seniors Braxton Lundberg, Camden Dunn, and Jin Villasica.
 
"I especially appreciate our three seniors for everything they sacrificed and gave to this program throughout their careers," Brown said.