With the Neosho wrestling program’s eight-year reign as COC champions having ended earlier this month, Nixa’s boys basketball program is challenging to be the league’s new kingpin.
That title now belongs, at least for time being, to Carthage’s football program. The Tigers have won 22 straight games within the COC, although they lost to Webb City in playoff action last fall.
Nixa’s hoopsters ran their COC winning streak to 19 games by blowing out Joplin 83-50 Saturday. The Eagles own 22 straight wins overall against league opponents.
The queen of the COC, by the way, is Nixa’s girls soccer program, which has reeled off 32 straight conference wins outside of a District loss to Ozark in 2019..
Thus far, Nixa’s 19 consecutive COC wins on the hardwood haven’t drawn much fanfare.
“We don’t talk about it, but that’s cool to know,” forward Kael Combs said of the streak.
“We expect to win all our conference games,” coach Jay Osborne said. “When we win, you notice we don’t celebrate a whole lot.”
Over the years, Osborne’s teams haven’t lost a whole lot in the COC.
Nixa won the COC championship outright last season and shared the title with Joplin two years ago. Nixa claimed six outright or shared conference championships in seven seasons from 2008-2015.
Combs, a junior, was also part of COC championship teams while he was in seventh and eighth grades. He has his sights set on eventually being part of four COC championship teams in high school.
“That would be really cool to (win) conference for my whole junior high and high school careers,” Combs said. “That would mean a lot to me. People take pride in conference wins.”
Nixa (18-3 overall and 4-0 in the COC) will be on the road for two conference dates this coming week.
“We have a couple tough games coming up at Branson (Tuesday) and at Webb City (Friday),” Osborne said. “That’s two places in the past that have been tough for us to play in.”
Time was not too long ago when Nixa had a tough time with Joplin. Nixa endured a three-game losing streak to Joplin that included a District loss in 2018, a COC loss in 2019 and a Carthage Tournament loss in 2019.
But the teams’ last four matchups have been completely lopsided in Nixa’s favor. In fact, the average margin of victory for Osborne’s teams have been 28.3 points.
Nixa was up 45-23 by halftime Saturday.
“Our defense in the first half was really good,” Osborne said. “Our help-defense and the way we communicated were good. The way we guarded the Wright brothers was awesome. They got loose a few times, but they’re good players and are going to do that.”
“We hustled and didn’t take any plays off,” Combs said. “I love our man-defense. I’m super confident in it.”
Osborne would have liked for Nixa’s zone defense in the fourth quarter to be better.
“I wasn’t real happy with it. We weren’t moving out of it,” he said. “Of course, the game was decided. But it is something we need to work on because it is going to be something we may need to run in a tight game or when we’re in foul trouble.”
Offensively, Nixa received a career-high 26 points from Jaret Nelson, 19 from Combs and 16 from Colin Ruffin.
JOPLIN (50) — Alw. Wright 10 0-1 23, All Wright 4 7-7 18, Renfro 1 0-0 2, Jasper 1 0-0 2, Morris 1 0-0 3, Hafer 1 0-2 2.
NIXA (83) — Piepmeier 1 0-0 2, Ruffin 6 2-2 16, Turner 3 1-1 9, Combs 8 0-0 19, Bell 1 0-0 2, Engelman 1 0-1 2, Nelson 12 2-3 26, Berry 3 1-2 7
Joplin 12 11 16 11 - 50
Nixa 20 25 19 19 - 83
3-point goals - Combs 3, Alw. Wright 3, All Wright 3, Ruffin 2, Turner 2, Morris.
