Log in

Liberators secure third place in the Blue and Gold

Posted

The legendary Blue and Gold Tournament in Springfield entered its 77th year of bringing some of the best basketball teams in Southwest Missouri together.

The format this year was four games in four days. A grueling challenge at best.

Bolivar has played for the championship four times and has won it twice – in 1997 when they beat Hartville 67-64 and last year when they defeated Ozark 67-50.

Bolivar advanced through the tournament by defeating Catholic 49-30 and Ash Grove 69-46, but losing the double overtime thriller to Sparta 68-66.

Bolivar coach Robbie Hoegh elected to sub often after the physical game with Sparta.

The Liberators established their inside game early with Kyle Pock and Mason Wilson. The undersized Eagles scrambled to stop that, so Bolivar went to their outside game with some success.

The first quarter ended with Bolivar ahead 16-6, and this would be Bolivar's biggest offensive quarter of the game.

The Eagles made a little run at the end of the third quarter to get the deficit to single digits, but Kaden Griswold buried a three pointer and helped the Liberators take a 45-30 lead late in the 4th quarter.

The final score was Bolivar 47-30. Leading scorers for the Liberators were Pock with 16 points and Griswold with 12 points.

Spartans ambush the Liberators in double overtime 68-66

The semi-final round of the Gold bracket of the Blue and Gold tournament in Springfield Dec. 28 matched up the number one seed Bolivar Liberators and the #3 seed Sparta Spartans.

The Liberators were defending last year's championship, and Sparta was making their first visit in 22 years.

Sparta had defeated neighbor Ozark the game before, and the Liberators had cruised past Ash Grove to advance to the semi-final round.

Bolivar seemed to be in control as the game began moving to a 17-9 first quarter lead. Sparta was having trouble scoring and if it wasn't for their offensive rebounding they would have less on the scoreboard.

With a 25-15 half time lead, the Liberators returned to the locker room to iron out some rebounding problem and find some spark in their offense. The Spartans needed their firepower to ignite.

The Liberator shooters could not get the three point shots to go down, and the game made a big change in the third quarter as Sparta scored 19 points in the stanza and Bolivar responded with 9 points of their own.

This set up the two overtimes as a dog fight commenced.

Both teams scored 15 points in the fourth quarter as the two leading scorers in the game Bolivar's Kyle Pock and Sparta's Jacob Lafferty were guarding each other. The two athletes Pock at 6'7" and Lafferty at 6'5" had put on a great effort for their respective teams, with the final buzzer showing the score knotted at 49-49.

The first overtime saw Sparta take a three point lead in the closing seconds, but Pock hit a long three pointer at the buzzer, making the game go to the second overtime.

Both teams dug in and had a huge scoring effort, putting 22 points on the board in the shortened period. But as both teams left it all on the floor, the Liberators could not get a last shot off to tie or win and fell 68-66.

Bolivar scoring saw Pock with 25 points, followed by Kaden Griswold with 15 and Gardner Casey with 10.

The Liberators opened 2023 with a trip to Waynesville on Tuesday, Jan. 3. No information was available on this game at press time.


X
X