CARTHAGE — As far back as last spring, T.J. Sorgenfrei sought out an off-season workout plan designed to make himself much more than just another stationary shooter camped out at the 3-point line.
"Shooting is something I work on a lot. But during the quarantine and the whole summer, I focused a lot of my training on quickness and speed," the Nixa senior guard said.
Suddenly, an agile Sorgenfrei with exceptional footwork and lateral movement has completely changed his image. He was a defensive-stopper for the Eagles on their way to a 51-34 win over Ray-Pec in the Carthage Tournament championship game Saturday.
For the second straight night, Sorgenfrei's defense stood out. He limited the Panthers' I'Ryan Allen to 14 points, after holding Joplin's Always Wright to nine Friday.
Allen came into the final leading all of the Kansas City area in scoring with a 30.6 points-per-game clip and had 33 points against Seneca on Friday. Wright had 29 points opposite West Plains on Thursday.
"It was pretty tiring following (Allen) around the whole game. But I knew that was my assignment and I had to stick with him," Sorgenfrei said. "The main thing I was focusing on was keeping him in front of me and cutting him off every time he went one direction. We had recognized he was a shooter, so I also had to contest his 3-point shot.
"I felt like I did good job sticking with him and containing him," he added. "I hardly ever let him get by me or away from me. Defense adds another element to my game."
Sorgenfrei's effort gives Nixa coach Jay Osborne hope he can fill a role held by Evann Long the past two years.
"We need to have a couple guys step up and become our Evann Long," Osborne said. "Guys have to make sacrifices and burn calories on the defensive end. We've got some big opponents and really good players ahead of us. We're going to need someone to take over that role. (Allen) was the focus of our attention tonight. T.J. worked his tail off and did a great job on him."
A write-up on Sorgenfrei holding Allen to 14 points might seem a bit much for any reader not in attendance or watching the game being streamed. More telling of Sorgenfrei's work was Allen needed an estimated 20 shots, perhaps as much as 25, to get to 14 points.
"He was just chucking up shots, shooting over everybody," Eagles guard Colin Ruffin said. "That's what we wanted. He made a couple of them. But he wasn't going to continuously kill us."
Nixa's defense was good everywhere. The Eagles led 31-12 at the half.
"Our help-defense was outstanding," Osborne said. "We did an excellent job on their shooters. I was proud of our defense."
Ray-Pec (3-1) scored nine of the first 10 points of the fourth quarter to pull within nine, 39-30. A 3-pointer by Ruffin gave Nixa the momentum for good.
Osborne immediately called a timeout to scold Ruffin. His trey from the top of the key in traffic wasn't exactly what the Eagles were looking for.
"Coach said, '5-game layup,' so we were only supposed to only shoot a layup," Ruffin said. "He called that timeout to hammer me. At the end of the day, it wasn't a good shot. I have confidence in my shot and it dropped, luckily. It would not have been a good thing if it didn't."
"I didn't like the shot-selection. But I liked the result," Osborne said. "Sometimes, bad shots turn into good shots when they go in the hole."
Jordyn Turner capped an impressive tourney with nine points.
"We got some great minutes out of Turner," Osborne said. "Jordyn can play that kind of ball. He'll get more minutes."
It was a bit of a disappointment during the post-game awards ceremony that Carthage officials do not name an All-Tournament Team or Tournament MVP. The consensus in Nixa's camp was Eagles forward Jason Jones would have walked away with plenty of hardware.
Jones added 15 points Saturday to up his tourney total to 55.
"It's fine by me, I don't really care too much about awards," Jones said. "I never have won an MVP award and didn't win one today. But hearing people say (he was the MVP) means a lot."
Nixa added a tourney championship trophy to its trophy case for the first time since the 2017-18 season.
"Man, it feels good to win a tournament," Osborne said.
"To win the championship means a lot," Jones said. "It's just the beginning we hope."
Nixa 51, Ray-Pec 34
NIXA (51) — Ruffin 3 3-4 10, Turner 3 2-2 9, Sorgenfrei 2 0-0 5, Wofford 1 0-2 2, Nelson 3 4-4 10, Jones 5 4-5 15, Berry 0 1-2 1. Totals 17 14-18 51.
RAY-PEC (34) — Allen 5 4-6 14, McClemore 1 0-0 3, Riley 4 0-0 8, Sutton 1 0-0 3, Reddell 1 4-4 6. Totals 12 8-13 34.
Nixa 12 19 7 13 - 51
Ray-Pec 7 5 9 13 - 34
3-point goals - Ruffin, Turner, Sorgenfrei, McClemore, Sutton.
