After three quarters of sluggish basketball and poor shooting, the Waynesville boys basketball team overtook a grating Springfield Parkview squad in the fourth quarter to pull out a 59-53 victory.
“Motivation has to come from the players,” said Waynesville head coach Tom Bildner. “They were in a weird senior night mood, I guess they got caught up in all the hoopla and weren’t ready at the beginning.
“I’m just glad to win this one.”
Waynesville (now 19-5, 6-2 Ozark Conference) struggled from the beginning, although they took the first lead of the game at 2-0.
Parkview (7-16, 1-7) answered with four points in that quarter, but the Vikings’ pass-happy flex offense slowed the game considerably, resulting in a low-scoring 12-8 Viking lead at the end of the first quarter.
Junior forward Kevin Vereen was the lone bright spot in the first quarter, scoring 4 of those 8 points. He finished with a game-high 15 points and grabbed 10 rebounds.
It was Vereen who gave the Tigers their first lead of the second quarter when he put back an offensive rebound for two with 1:25 remaining, giving the Tigers a temporary 24-23 lead in the second.
It was short-lived, however, as Parkview took the 25-24 lead at the buzzer.
Despite Vereen’s dominating game on the glass, Bildner noticed the team’s lack of rebounding, something that hurt them on Tuesday night.
“The last two, three games we haven’t been climbing on the backboards like we were earlier in the season,” Bildner said. “We got back to that a little at the end of the game.”
It didn’t happen immediately, though.
Parkview came on stronger in the third quarter, at one point scoring 10 unanswered points, which eventually gave them a 42-32 lead at the end of the quarter.
While the game looked in peril in the final eight minutes, the Tigers responded immediately. Bildner said that he had the Tigers change their defense to combat the slow-down Viking offense–whenever the Vikings would pass it to the corner, two Tigers would pounce on and trap, the ballhandler forcing a mistake.
But the Tigers wouldn’t get back into the game without some timely shooting, and sophomore guard Jason Laughlin kicked off the final quarter with a huge three-pointer.
That shot kicked off a 10-0 run on  the Tiger side, and with just under five minutes remaining in the game the score was tied at 42.
The Tigers never trailed again; and although the Vikings tied the game once more, at 44, they couldn’t disrupt the Tigers, who had awakened from a cold-shooting slump.
Waynesville only led 51-48 with 2:09 remaining when Parkview threw the ball away and effectively ended their chance to win. From then on, Parkview was forced to foul, and Waynesville made almost all of the foul shots down the stretch.
“At this point of the season, a win’s a win,” Bildner said. “We’re 19-5...how many teams around the state wouldn’t kill for being 19-5, especially in the position we were in at the beginning of the season [with only one varsity returner]?”
The Tigers’ next opponents are the Chiefs of Springfield Kickapoo (17-7, 7-1). On Friday they’ll be celebrating the final home game of legendary Chief coach Roy Green, who is retiring at the end of the school year.
Bildner said he hopes it isn’t a distraction for his team.
“We’re gonna do everything possible to come away with a win on their home floor,” he said. “We just can’t start out like tonight.”

Individual scoring
Waynesville (59): Dupont 2-1-7, Bardell 2-5-9, Johnson 0-0-0, Lewis 1-1-3, Williams 2-0-4, Ray 1-3-5, Perry 3-4-10, Vereen 7-1-15, Preston 1-0-2, Whitehead 0-1-1, Laughlin 1-0-3, Totals 20-16-59.
Parkview (53): Poke1-0-2, Johnson 1-0-2, Hitchcock 4-1-9, Prince 3-3-9, Denney 5-5-15, Tillery 5-4-16, Totals 19-13-53.
Foul shooting
Waynesville: 16/27 (59 percent)
Parkview: 13/17 (76 percent)
Scoring by quarters
W’ville:   8    16    8   27   59
Pkview:  12   13   17   11   53