Prep boys basketball: Tipton survives Cole Camp, earns another shot at Gremlins

Asked about a potential rematch with top-seeded Sacred Heart in the championship before the Kaysinger Conference tournament began, Tipton coach Billy Jeffries warned that overlooking Cole Camp would be a mistake.

His second-seeded Cardinals had already beaten the third-seeded Bluebirds twice, but he took heed of the adage that it’s hard to beat a team three times in one season.

On Tuesday night, that old saying was tested. But the third time wasn’t a charm for Cole Camp.

Ethan Koechner had 16 points and 10 boards, Wade Wood added 14 points and 13 rebounds and Tipton advanced to the championship game with a 44-40 win over the Bluebirds  at the Fred E. Davis Multipurpose Center.

“We knew coming in it was going to be a battle,” Jeffries said. “I said earlier in the week it’s hard to beat a good team three times and we were fortunate enough (tonight).”

Awaiting Tipton (16-4) will be a 7 p.m. Saturday matchup with the Gremlins, who, including a 63-59 victory in last year’s conference tournament finale, are 4-0 against the Cardinals since they joined the Kaysinger Conference last year.

Asked about the daunting task of facing a team that’s 19-1 and has won 40 consecutive games against conference opponents, Jeffries said, “We’re going to give it a try.”

The Bluebirds, who lead all Kaysinger schools with 19 conference championship wins since the league switched from the Pettis Benton County Activities Association in 1969, had a bevy of chances to get to the championship, but they shot just 25 percent from the floor and 19 percent from beyond the arc.

Tipton, meanwhile, found a way to shine down the stretch on the strength of a pair of key offensive boards.

The first came from Collin Nolting, who knotted the score at 40 with a putback with less than two minutes to play. Then with 40 seconds left, Wood took the ball strong to the hoop and missed, but 6-foot-7 Tim Brink was there to corral the rebound and put in the easy layup.

On Cole Camp’s next possession, Colin Kabler was called for an illegal screen and after a Bluebird foul, Chaz Raymond hit one of two free throws. Cole Camp (13-8) then opted to go for a two-point shot rather than a game-tying trey and missed, leading to a Koechner free throw that sealed the win.

“Good teams find ways to win,” Jeffries said. “Tonight our kids just dug down deep.”

Early on, though, the Cardinals didn’t look like they’d need a late charge to pull off the win.

Led by four-straight buckets from Koechner, who added a club-best five assists to go along with his double-double, the Cardinals hit their first seven shots and scored the first 11 points of the game en route to a a 15-4 lead. They ended the quarter shooting 8 of 13 for a 19-11 lead, and the second stanza began promisingly enough with a Dylan Cooper jumper.

But Cole Camp buckled down on defense and its offense, forcing an exhausted Tipton into six of its nine first-half turnovers and holding the Cardinals to just two points on 1 of 4 shooting. Meanwhile, Tanner Oelrichs poured in four of his club-best 14 points, Kabler added four of his own and Michael Brockman hit a trey to give the Bluebirds a 22-21 lead at halftime.

“We were getting the shots, we just weren’t knocking them down after the fast start,” Jeffries said. “I told the kids to settle down, we’ll get it worked it out. And they did.”