Hartville coach Brett Reed, whose team won a Blue and Gold title in 2020 and regularly contends for championships at Great Southern Bank Arena, admittedly is no fan of the shot clock. Experiencing four games with the clock over the last week didn\u2019t change his mind.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe noticed it probably a little bit, but I don\u2019t think it was a factor in anything,\u201d Reed said. \u201cI guess if there wasn\u2019t a shot clock tonight, we could have maybe played a little bit slower, made them guard a little longer. Maybe we\u2019d got a little better looks, but then again, we might have turned it over, too. So who knows?<\/p>\n
\u201cI mean, I thought it was fine. I thought the tournament ran great and went smooth. We just didn\u2019t make enough plays tonight to win.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nixa\u2019s side thought the shot clock probably helped them walk away with the first-place trophy. Hartville was able to use its usual disciplined, patient offense within the framework of 35 seconds to build a 10-point first-half lead and was in front 37-36 late in the third quarter.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cTo be honest with you, we lose if there\u2019s not a shot clock,\u201d Nixa coach Brock Blansit said. \u201cI knew it would be a struggle, because we couldn\u2019t guard them in man. But it was an even bigger struggle than I thought.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThey were getting every shot they wanted, so without a shot clock, we can\u2019t run a zone (defense) and they could get off a couple of minutes. (The shot clock) made a big difference.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Nixa guard Randy Flint said he saw enough on video of Hartville to know how dangerous the game could have been otherwise.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI think (the shot clock) is nice, because in film Hartville usually took two minutes on an offensive play, so I think it was nice speeding them up and see what they can do when they have to make quick shots,\u201d Flint said.<\/p>\n
Hartville only shot three times in the second half after the clock went below 10 seconds with one of those a made 3-pointer, along with two missed threes. But Nixa\u2019s pressure forced a flurry of turnovers or contested shots in the fourth quarter.\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Hartville-v-Nixa-8139.jpg\")
Hartville\u2019s Gus Sinning battles with Nixa\u2019s Adam McKnight during the Blue & Gold Tournament at Great Southern Bank Arena in Springfield on December 30, 2025. (Photo by Bruce Stidham)<\/p>\n
Reed said the shot-clock subject was off limits for his players. Hartville guard Mason Cogdill, with a team-leading 17 points, gave credit to Nixa\u2019s defense and said the experience of seeing the bigger school will benefit Hartville as it pursues another Class 2 state title.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a great game to get prepared for the rest of the season,\u201d Cogdill said. \u201cThis is a great tournament. We get up here and we play great competition, so it does help us in the long run of the season.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the debate about the merits of a shot clock for high school will likely continue into the offseason and probably beyond.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Parkview coach Jack Simpson, whose team bounced back from an opening-round loss to win three straight and take Blue division consolation honors, said he\u2019s firmly in favor of a clock becoming a mandate in Missouri.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s great. We\u2019ve had it for the majority of our games so far,\u201d Simpson said. \u201cWe need it. And our kids like it. It just helps the flow of the game.\u201d<\/p>\n
Simpson said it doesn\u2019t change the way he coaches because his style is to play fast on offense and shoot it before 35 seconds either way.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf not, we\u2019re probably going to turn it over anyway,\u201d Simpson said with a laugh. \u201cI think it helps the flow of the game. It helps the end-of-game scenarios, and I think it even helps the referees, too, because teams aren\u2019t just fouling.\u201d<\/p>\n
Simpson isn\u2019t optimistic the clock will be added full-on any time soon.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou never know, Missouri\u2019s behind in all aspects it feels like, so we\u2019ll see,\u201d Simpson said. \u201cIt could be years, but we\u2019re taking a step in the right direction.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t Lyndal Scranton is a Springfield native who has covered sports in the Ozarks for more than 35 years, witnessing nearly every big sports moment in the region during the last 50 years. The Missouri Sports Hall of Famer, Springfield Area Sports Hall of Famer and live-fire cooking enthusiast also serves as PR Director for Lucas Oil Speedway in Wheatland, Missouri and is co-host of the Tailgate Guys BBQ Podcast. Contact him at Lscranton755@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter @LyndalScranton. More by Lyndal Scranton<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Greenwood Blue and Gold boys\u2019 basketball tournament that is so steeped in tradition had a new twist…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":74761,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[38527,38528,38529,38530,178,180,179,30176],"class_list":{"0":"post-74760","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-scranton","8":"tag-blue-and-gold-tournament","9":"tag-hartville-eagles","10":"tag-nixa","11":"tag-parkview","12":"tag-scranton","13":"tag-scranton-headlines","14":"tag-scranton-news","15":"tag-shot-clock"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74760","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74760"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74760\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74761"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74760"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74760"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74760"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/1767194053_116_Lyndal_Scranton_Square-e1643754217713.jpg\")
\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tLyndal Scranton\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n