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Higbee boys defeat Green City, advance to Final Four

Kevin Oeth, Sports Editor
Posted 3/9/21

The Higbee boys are making school history. After winning their first ever district championship on February 25 against Community. The Tigers defeated Green City 45-38 on Friday to advance to the …

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Higbee boys defeat Green City, advance to Final Four

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The Higbee boys are making school history. After winning their first ever district championship on February 25 against Community. The Tigers defeated Green City 45-38 on Friday to advance to the state tournament in Springfield. Higbee is one of four Class 1 boys teams that will battle it out for the state title next weekend.

Friday’s game was moved to Glasgow to accommodate more fans. Higbee and Green City Gophers fought toe-to-toe in the and battled for four quarters before the Tigers finally came out with the victory.

Tenacious defense was the name of the game throughout the night as both teams pressured and trapped from the start. As much as possible with the swarming defenses, both teams worked for open shots ignoring open looks from the 3-point arc. The only three of game was scored by Green City’s junior guard Laydon Fields in the waning moments of the game. Fields’ 3-pointer allowed him to lead all scorers in the game with 15.

“That’s the way we’ve played, you could look at the Chamois game, you could look at it as really ugly offense and pretty good defense. I’d say that was a pretty good defensive effort,”said Higbee coach Tanner Burton. “Tonight was a good defensive effort. The kids worked their tails off. They’re exhausted. When they give you everything they’ve got, you know you’re doing it right.”

And do it right they did. Behind by two at the end of the first quarter, Higbee tied it up then went ahead on freshman Jordan Fuemmeler’s two pointer. Fuemmeler scored eight of his ten points on the night in the second quarter.

Higbee started off that quarter with a 6-0 run before Green City could score with 3:45 left in the half. The Tiger defense held Green City to just five points in the frame, allowing Higbee to take an 18-15 lead at halftime.

Green City fought back in the third and tied the game at 25 with 2:36 left in the quarter. Higbee took the ball and went right back down the court to regain the lead with 40 seconds left in the period. But the Gophers came back to tie the game at 27. Exhausted, the teams went to the bench to prepare for what would amount to a new eight minute game with the teams starting out even to begin the final battle.

At the beginning of the fourth, it looked as if Green City would run away with the quarter and the trip to the Show-Me Showdown as they began the fourth with an 8-2 run to take a 35-29 lead. But the Tigers had a different plan fighting back by reeling off their own 6-0 run to tie the game once again at 35 with 1:46 left to go. After Green City scored again, Higbee freshman Derek Rockett took over and tied the game again then put in the go-ahead basket with 1:26 left. 

As the seconds ticked down Higbee made a clutch rebound after a missed free throw by junior Luke Ritter and earned another trip the charity stripe. Rockett hit both free throws and two others as the clock wound down, sealing the 45-38 win for the the Tigers.

Rockett paced the Tigers, scoring 10 of his 14 points in the fourth quarter while Fuemmeler hit for 10 on the game, all coming in the first half while sitting out a portion of the second half in foul trouble. Junior Jamie Smith fought hard under the basket coming up with nine points, all in the paint. Senior Keetun Redifer, junior Luke Ritter, and sophomore Chad Crawford, coming off the bench, each added four. 

“We went from a team that had never won a championship, to winning a district title, sectionals, quarterfinals and now going to the final four. So that’s kind of crazy,” Burton said. “I don’t know how that fits into the story book, but it’s pretty cool.”

“I’ve been to Springfield a select few times,” said freshman Jordan Fuemmeler. “I’m pretty excited to go. We’ve been working hard all season, I think we really earned this tonight. We went out and just played our hearts out, we played like it was our last game. Our defense wins us games. When we’re getting steals and tips and layups it really fuels us.”

The defense will need to be on high alert on Friday as Higbee will travel to Springfield to take on the South Iron Panthers out of Annapolis. Coming off a 105-67 win over Delta Friday evening, the Panthers will be bringing their 23-4 record and their 81.6 points per game into the game with Higbee. The Tigers hold a 19-5 record and average 60.9 points per game.

The semifinal game will be played at the John Q. Hammons Arena & Hammons Student Center, on the Missouri State University campus in Springfield on March 12 at 10 a.m. The winner will advance to the championship on March 13 at 2 p.m. The losing team will play for third place at noon. Tickets are available through MSHSAA.org.

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