Clarkton Reindeer hold off Holcomb's late surge

HOLCOMB, Mo. - Closing out their January schedule, the Clarkton Reindeer traveled to play against the Hornets of Holcomb.

Clarkton would hoist their record to four wins on the season after beating the Hornets 78-53.

Despite a 25-point victory, the second half of this game made it feel a lot closer.

In the fourth quarter, after trailing 58-30 through the first three quarters, Holcomb found a spark for a comeback.

Hornets head coach John Hixon was tossed out of the game after receiving back-to-back technical fouls. This fired up the Hornets, making the final quarter their best of the game. They went on a 23-point run and slowly began reeling the Clarkton Reindeer back. Their deficit went from as high as 28 points to as low as 15 in the final quarter.

Junior Samuel Jacobs led the Hornets, scoring 13 points in the final minutes. However, just as he got hot, Jacobs would go down with an injury on a three-point attempt. He was forced to sit out the rest of the game.

Following Jacobs’ absence, starter Braxton Wiggins would also be forced to sit with five fouls, breaking the Hornet's momentum.

Wiggins was not the only player in foul trouble. Senior point guard Matthew Russom also found himself with four fouls.

On the other side, Clarkton also had two starters playing with four fouls apiece. Both teams were playing in the bonus for fouls. Senior Alex Juarez and Kaleb Hunter were forced to back off to prevent fouling out.

However, as Hunter picked up his fourth foul, head coach Cole McBroom decided to keep him in the game.

It worked out for McBroom, as Hunter would score eight unanswered points and turn the momentum back in Clarkton’s favor.

“Kaleb is a super kid,” McBroom said. “I’m really proud of the condition that he’s done this year and glad to see him take advantage of that opportunity. He made some really nice post moves, he made himself available on the block and his hands were ready. Then we went up and scored for us.”

As Holcomb stepped up in the fourth, Clarkton was still able to get 17 points. Hunter scored 10 of those points for the Reindeer in the final quarter of play. He helped extend the lead back to a 25-point advantage before the final buzzer.

Despite the small step back in the fourth quarter, McBroom was proud to see his team battle it out and hold on to the lead.

“I thought we guarded well tonight,” McBroom said. “I thought James Johnson had a really good game. He was all over the place. He was scoring points, taking care of the basketball, guarding, and rebounding and I’m really proud of what he did tonight. I can’t even be upset at how many points [Holcomb] scored in the fourth because they were just making some tough shots and we made them work to get those shots.”

Four of Clarkton’s starting five scored in double digits. Johnson would sit as their top scorer with 18 points. Right beside him was his freshman teammate, Caleb Redden. Redden matched Johnson, also scoring 18 points of his own. Right behind those two was Hunter with 17 points and Juarez finished with 11 points.

For Holcomb, Jacobs was their guy until his departure in the fourth. Even still, Jacobs would lead both teams with a game-high 24 points. He had five three-pointers in the game.

Along with Jacobs, Holcomb junior Stephen Bradshaw was the second-leading scorer for his team with 13 points. He scored three from beyond the arc and was 100% at the free-throw line, shooting 4-4.

According to McBroom, this was an important win to continue building momentum and confidence into the final month of play after a rough start to their season.

“Our schedule was tough,” McBroom said. “It was just a tough Class 1 schedule, and we can get beat down based on that fact alone. We are 4-11 and I don’t know how many of those 11 we can even call bad losses. We played some really good teams, but my big thing was, ‘We can’t get beat down.’ We can’t give up and we can’t just roll over on the season because anything can happen. I’m really proud of our guys for not rolling over.”

To close out January, Clarkton has won three of their last four games. Their next, and final, game of the month will be at Naylor on Friday, Jan. 31.

Holcomb’s loss will move them to 2-14. They will travel to face Risco on Jan. 30 for their next competition.