NIXA BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT RESULTS

O’HARA RALLIES FROM WAY BACK BUT LOSES IN LAST EIGHT SECONDS AT NIXA TOURNAMENT The O’Hara Celtics nearly pull out a spectacular Championship win at the Nixa Tournament but came up just short 54-52 after a terrible first half. The Kickapoo Chiefs won on a layup by Marcus Crigler. DJ Jackson attempted a three-pointer that hit the rim but failed to drop as time ran out. The game had been tied by a pair of free throws by Aaron Stubblefield, but the real story was the tremendous and unlikely rallying comeback by the Celtics! The halftime score was 31-15 and the fans felt the game was headed for a runaway. The Celtics more than came to life as they dominated play throughout the third quarter scoring 20 while the Chiefs were held to 11. In the fourth quarter the Celtics outpointed the Chiefs by five, but were not quite able to pull off the victory. In the final analysis, the difference in the final score was the free throws wherein the Chiefs had 13 to the Celtics 11. Both teams profited from five three-pointers. Alex Hall had four for the Chiefs while the Celtics got theirs from DJ Jackson (2), JeVon Lyle (2), and Ronnie Miller. O’Hara’s top scorers were TJ White with 15, DJ Jackson with 13, and JeVon Lyle with11. For Kickapoo, Scottie Blakelee had 18 followed by Alex Hall with 17 and Brandon Helsel with 13. As a result of the Tournament games, the records of the two squads were Kickapoo 12-7 and O’Hara 11-7. Nixa won third place in the Tournament downing Hillcrest 69-50.In the semifinals of the Nixa Invitational on Friday night, the O'Hara Celtics' slow-paced offense opened up large holes in the Nixa Eagles’ defense resulting in easy layups as O'Hara beat the Eagles 62-53 . With a 44-41 lead heading into the fourth quarter, the Celtics (11-6) engineered an 8-2 run to build a lead that allowed them to slow things down. Eventually O'Hara, who defeated Nixa 62-55 in overtime of the championship game last year, earned the privilege to face the Kickapoo Chiefs for the Tournament Championship. The Eagles had a lot of turnovers resulting from a 14-2 run by O'Hara that put the Celtics up 22-8 in the second quarter. But the Eagles answered the call with a 13-2 run of its own to pull back within 24-21. They closed the gap to 39-37 with two minutes left in the third quarter but could not get any closer. T.J. White led all scorers with 17 points for the Celtics and Dominique Fields added 14 points. Both had seven rebounds. D.J. Jackson pitched in 12 points. On the previous day, Mount Vernon couldn't keep up with the Celtics after the first quarter and O'Hara moved to the semifinals after posting a 69-53 victory. A 12-4 second quarter boosted the Celtics to a nine point halftime lead at 28-19 and the team continued to control the game. TJ White had a very productive game leading the Celtics with 19 points. Mark Braden and DJ Jackson contributed 30 more points between them. Nine of Braden's points were from three-point range.