By Richard Polen
rpolen@joplinglobe.com
Springfield Parkview went on a 15-0 run in the second quarter, then withstood Joplin’s fourth-quarter comeback attempt in a 51-48 Ozark Conference victory Tuesday night in Kaminsky Gymnasium.
Parkview, trailing 17-8 with six minutes left in the first half, hit a pair of 3-point goals and made 5-of-6 free throws in taking a 23-17 lead at halftime.
“I didn’t think we played defensively very well in the second quarter,” Joplin head coach Jeff Williams said. “We still revert back to the way we played early in the season.
“I was proud of the way we played in the end. We had two good looks at the end of the game. That one slipped away. We let it slip away.”
Joplin, 15-4, was defeated for the first time in three conference games. The Eagles resume their conference schedule Friday night at Waynesville.
Waynesville, 9-9 overall, improved to 3-1 in the conference with a 63-62 victory Tuesday night at Springfield Glendale.
Phillip Davis scored eight of his 14 points in the third quarter, and the Eagles kept Parkview’s lead at six when Matt McCreary’s steal and assist to Devin St. Clair pulled Joplin to within 35-29 going into the fourth quarter.
Joplin pulled to within a point three times in the fourth quarter but could not overcome Parkview’s second-quarter surge.
“We had Nick (Brown), Phil and Matt all sitting on the bench with two fouls,” Williams said of Parkview’s earlier run. “I’d like to have some of those possessions back.”
McCreary led Joplin’s comeback effort in the fourth quarter by scoring 10 of his 17 points, including four of five from the free-throw line. The Eagles pulled to within 37-36 when McCreary drove to the basket and banked in a shot from the lane with 5:08 left in the game.
Zentrell Shannon’s steal and layup cut Parkview’s lead to 40-39, but the Vikings responded with a 3 by Korry Tillery and two easy baskets against Joplin’s pressure defense for a 47-40 lead with 2:01 to play.
Two field goals by Derek Stokes, including one assisted by St. Clair, and McCreary’s two free throws cut the lead to 47-46 with 1:24 to go.
“That last five minutes, we defended well and poured our hearts out,” Williams said. “They definitely did a good job keeping the ball out of Derek’s hands. We couldn’t hit an open shot over there when we had it.”
Poke and Jalen Goodwin of Parkview each made both free throws in one-and-one situations over the final 1:10. Meanwhile, Stokes and McCreary each missed a 3 in the last 8.5 seconds that would have tied the score and sent the game into overtime.
