In the absence of a Christmas break tournament, the Cassville boys basketball team is ready to turn the season’s corner and use back-to-back tournaments as a springboard to Big 8 Conference play.
At 1-8, the Wildcats have played a competitive schedule, facing only one squad with a sub-.500 record, Buffalo, which they beat in the Strafford Tournament, 48-46, on Dec. 7. Three of those losses have also been by two possessions or less.
Caleb Reynolds, Cassville boys basketball coach, said the team struggled early with some injury issues lingering from football season, which resulted in the Christmas break serving as a healing time.
“I think we’re healthy now and we got everybody back,” he said. “The time not playing in a Christmas tournament definitely gave guys time to rest and heal, so we’re looking a lot better on that on that part. Now, we’re getting ready to play a lot of games and short amount of time and work on getting better.
“We’re getting better every day, but there’s only so much you can do in practice. We need to play games against other teams.”
Cassville’s schedule thus far has been a challenge, which Reynolds said is by design.
“I think everyone we’ve played is Class 3 and 4, and we’re Class 4, so they’ve been the same size as us — but only one has been under .500,” he said. “Overall, what we’ve seen is better than what we’re going to see in conference play night-in and nightout. We’ve had a couple tough losses the last couple weeks, but most of the games, we’ve been in. We keep reminding the guys it’s going to work out good for us in the long run.”
Reynolds said though the first nine games and various injuries, the team’s sophomores have made steady progress, with one starting and two coming off the bench.
“I am really proud of the the effort they’re putting in,” he said. “We also have a couple upperclassman that really haven’t played before this year, and they’re giving us some good minutes at times. We’re happy with what we’re seeing from those inexperienced guys.”
Cassville’s most experienced players on the floor are also finding a rhythm, like 6-9 senior Eli Stokes, who is averaging a double- double this season.
“I want to say he’s around 17 points and 11 rebounds per game,” Reynolds said. “He’s been doing a really good job for us, and we’re looking for opportunities to play a little bit of a faster game, offensively and defensively. We’ve been bigger even than we are now, so we’re getting a little more ball movement on the perimeter and looking to run a little more.
“That’’s kind of the nature of high school basketball — you have to play the hand you are dealt. We’re playing to our strengths a little more, and I think we will even more going forward. That’ll be more what we look like, because you don’t have 6-9 guys coming around every four years.”
The Wildcats will play six games this week and next. They took the No. 6 seed into the Seymour Bank 2025 Winter Classic on Monday, facing No. 3 Bakersfield. The result was not available at presstime. The winner and loser face No. 2 Aurora or No. 7 Dora on Thursday.
“We played in the Seymour Tournament last year, and I coached in it before coming to Cassville,” Reynolds said. “It’s a really good tournament and a mix of bigger and smaller schools.”
Next week, Cassville is the No. 7 seed in the 40th annual Spokane Invitational, facing Strafford on Jan. 21 at 5:30 p.m., with the winner and loser facing No. 3 Forsyth or No. 6 Southwest in the second round of games.
“Strafford will be a tough one,” Reynolds said. “They’ve got a really good team this year, and the top of the tournament is really good with them and Greenwood, and Forsyth is obviously really good. That’ll be another good challenge for us, and if we can get two out of three wins through both of those tournaments, that would be that be a real big boost, our confidence I think.”
Big 8 Conference play for Cassville kicks off on Jan. 28 at Lamar, with the first home Conference game on Feb. 4 — the BasketBrawl against county rival Monett. As it stands now, only three of the nine big 8 teams have winning records in East Newton, Mt. Vernon and Nevada.
