Josh Mason worked hard all summer preparing himself the best he could for the first  start of his varsity career. He found instant fulfillment at the Parkway Classic on Thursday, pouring in a game-high 26 points in Nixa's season opener

Mason hit a 3-pointer just before the halftime buzzer. It was one of six treys for the junior guard.

But he could hardly celebrate his breakout performance, as the Eagles let an 18-point lead slip away and lost 70-69 to Lafayette.

"I've been working on my game and set goals over the summer. I'm starting to achieve them," Mason said. "Sometimes the shots fall like they did for me in the first half. I was feeling it. Everything was going right. But we didn't get the win."

As exceptional as Nixa's offense was for the entire first half, the Eagles couldn't hit clutch buckets in the fourth quarter to thwart Lafayette's comeback.

Lafayette rallied from being down 58-50 three minutes into the fourth quarter to being up 62-60 with two minutes to play. Nixa followed up its 45-point first half by putting up just 15 points over the first 15 minutes of the second half.

Coach Jay Osborne and his assistants relayed to the Eagles an ominous stat that reflected their impatience.

"We had a stretch in which we had seven straight possessions of one pass and a shot," Mason said. "We can't have that. We were rushing our shots. If we would have been more patient, the game could have gone a different way."

Lafayette tried to give Nixa a chance, missing four straight free throws in the final minute. But the Eagles couldn't make it a one-possession ball game until Ace Akers swished a 3-point with a mere 0.6 remaining.

In contrast, Nixa's execution was near flawless in the first half. The Eagles quickly went up 28-15, with Mason and Luke Roemen both scoring a dozen points. They were up 45-27, with Mason netting 17 first-half points and Roeman adding 16.

"Maybe in summer ball, but not so much in school ball. This was a first for that," Mason said about his first-half explosion. "Going forward, I'm going to feel confident."

Kaleb Wofford, billed as one of the stars of this Classic and deservedly so after his impressive freshman season, never quite got his offensive game going. He finished with five points.

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