Diamond logs comeback win against Sarcoxie
· Yahoo Sports
When Diamond and Sarcoxie high schools met two weeks ago, Diamond prevailed in a lopsided 62-29 win. That was not the case on Tuesday night as the third-seeded Diamond Wildcats boys basketball team (13-12) used a strong fourth quarter to stay alive and advance with a 39-35 win over the Sarcoxie Bears (9-17) in the first round of the Class 3 District 11 tourney at the New Heights Christian Academy Athletic Complex.
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Points were at a premium in the first quarter for both squads. Adam Brown gave the Wildcats an early 2-0 lead with a drive to the rim. Diamond would not hold the lead again until midway through the fourth period.
A pair of Landen Straw free throws and a transition score from Gatlon Malotte gave the Bears their first lead at 4-2. Back-to-back buckets by Tyler Lambeth stretched Sarcoxie’s lead to 8-2 with about three minutes left in the opening quarter.
A Brown free throw halted the Bears 8-0 run to make it an 8-3 game after the first period.
A Wyatt Smith score in the paint pulled the Wildcats to within 3 points, but Lambeth hit a jumper for the Bears that pushed the lead back to 5 at 10-5 with 6:42 left in the half.
Smith scored in the paint off a nice feed from Grady Bentley and then hit a trey from the right side of the arc to tie the game at 10-all with about five minutes left.
Sarcoxie ended the first half on a 6-0 run off of a Josh Hoffman score, a Lambeth pull up jumper and a Malotte score in transition that gave the Bears a 16-10 lead going into the half.
Sarcoxie built on its lead to open the third quarter, extending the lead to 8 off a Hoffman free throw that made it a 24-16 game with 5:51 left in the third quarter.
The Bears lead swelled to 10 points off a Marshall Hall score in the paint at the 2:20 mark that put Sarcoxie up 28-18. The Bears held their biggest lead of the game at 30-19 after a pair of Straw free throws with 1:25 left in the third frame.
Diamond pared the Bears lead to 8 with a Wyatt Housh 3-pointer from the left corner and closed out the third quarter with a putback by Giancarlo Martinez that made it a 31-24 game heading into the final period.
A Brown trey bounced out of the cylinder and back into the net to trim the Sarcoxie lead to 4 at 31-27, but a Hall drive through the lane pushed the Bears lead back to 6 at 33-27 with 6:22 left.
Brown struck again from behind the arc to make it a 3-point game, and a Bentley score in the paint pulled the Wildcats within a point at 33-32 with 4:57 left.
Diamond earned its first lead of the game since it was 2-0 when Martinez made good on a pair of free throws with 4:43 left.
The Wildcats missed four straight free throws that would have extended Diamond’s lead, but Brown buried his third trey of the quarter to give the Wildcats a 37-33 lead with 1:05 left.
A putback by Hoffman pulled Sarcoxie within a score at 37-35 with 37 seconds left, but despite shooting just 2 of 12 down the stretch from the stripe, Diamond held on for the 39-35 win.
Diamond coach Lance Robbins praised his opponent after the game.
“Sarcoxie played their tails off tonight,” Robbins said. “They did a good job defensively. We struggled offensively — part of that was we didn’t shoot the ball well and some of it was their defense.”
Robbins talked about what got his Wildcat over the hump on Tuesday night.
“I thought we did some uncharacteristic things tonight on both ends of the floor, but we have been preaching to our kids the last month that toughness wins especially this time of year,” Robbins said. “I thought we showed a lot of toughness to be down the whole game and come back to take the lead. Once we got the lead, we felt pretty confident that we would be able to spread the floor and finish things off.”
Brown claimed game-high honors with 14 points. Bentley added 9 and Martinez and Smith had 7 each.
Lambeth led the Bears with 10 points. Malotte and Hoffman chipped in with 7 each.
The Wildcats advance to play second-seeded Pierce City High School (17-10) on Thursday in the semifinals at 7:30 p.m at New Heights. Pierce City advanced with a 72-29 win over New Covenant Academy in an earlier game on Tuesday.
Robbins talked about the semifinal matchup with Pierce City.
“They pose a whole different problem. They are a lot bigger and a lot longer,” Robbins said. “Defensively, they guard really well and are sound offensively, so we are going to have to come out and play one of our better games and guard like we are capable of guarding.”
With the loss, Sarcoxie bids adieu to a pair of seniors — Malotte and Hoffman.
The top-seeded New Heights Christian Academy Cougars (20-6) will face the fourth-seeded Marionville High School Comets (11-15), who beat Southwest High School (Washburn) 51-41 in the first game on Tuesday. That semifinal is slated for 6 p.m. Thursday.