​For the third consecutive time, a Wright City boys basketball game went down to the wire. And for the second straight time, the Wildcats came out on top – this time at the Clopton Varsity Invitational. The Wildcats squeaked out a 69-64 victory against Winfield on Tuesday in the opening round of the tournament.

​The win advances the Wildcats to the winner’s bracket to face top-seeded Monroe City, which defeated the Warrenton junior varsity team earlier on Tuesday.

​Wright City entered the final quarter up 55-47 and Winfield tried to rally, but free throws down the stretch helped keep the Warriors at bay. Winfield cut the lead to six – 68-62 – with 28 seconds to go. On the ensuing inbound, the Wildcats turned the ball over on a five-second violation. Winfield’s Sean Yates grabbed the rebound off a missed 3-pointer and got the put back to fall to reduce the deficit to 68-64.

​Devon Holmes hit on the back-end of a pair of free throws with just under three seconds to go to ice the game. Wright City did just enough from the charity stripe to put the game out of reach, but struggled to do so, hitting on just 7-of-22 chances from the line in the final quarter.

​Even so, Wright City Head Coach David Evans is pleased with his team’s discipline in the game offensively, a goal for the season that is starting to come to fruition.

​“I’m just letting the boys play, letting them get out there and have some fun with it. They are becoming more disciplined and becoming more coachable, so that’s helping out a lot. Looking at our schedule, it’s competitive, there aren’t any teams that we are going to blow out of the water. Hopefully there aren’t teams that will blow us out of the water. We can expect this kind of game each and every night and whether we come out each time to play,” Evans said.

​The Wildcats held a 35-34 advantage coming into the second half and got some big help offensively from David Liddell to help give his team some breathing room. The junior sank four 3-pointers in the third quarter alone. Liddell hit six on the evening and led the team with 23 points on the night.

​Winfield was able to take the lead to open the second half on a traditional 3-point play by junior Ian Pruitt, but that’s when Liddell and the rest of the Wright City offense got to work, going on an 8-0 run to extend its lead to 55-45.

​Both teams were exceptional offensively in the first half. Wright City shot 56 percent from the floor in the first half, including hitting 5-of-8 3-pointers in the half. Winfield’s offense worked effectively inside and shot just over 50 percent from the field in the half. 

​Evans said coming off a holiday break can lead to cold shooting at times, but he credited his team on working over break and the morning of the game to get warm.

​“I was definitely worried about coming out of break a little rusty. I told the boys to come to practice at break if they were in town. Our practices were a bit slim, but the boys came out this morning and shot around to get loosened up and I think that helped. Playing in a gym like this, where it’s a little bit different, a bit of a smaller facility can throw kids off sometimes. The boys really were able to hit and that’s what it came down to,” Evans said.

​That work was evident early as the Wildcats came out of the gate to grab an early 9-0 lead in the first four minutes of the game. Senior Cameron Cole hit a 3-pointer to start things off for Wright City. The Wildcat defense was able to keep Winfield scoreless for half of the first quarter. The Warriors finally got on the board on a free-throw by Carter Bauer. The senior led Winfield with 24 points on the night.

​For Wright City, Holmes had a strong second quarter, scoring 11 of his 17 points. Senior Sean McDonald pulled down five rebounds for the Wildcats. For Winfield, Pruitt scored 18 points, including eight in the final quarter.

​Monroe City enters its game on Thursday against Wright City with a 9-1 record. The victory against Winfield put the Wildcats above .500 at 5-4.

​After the Clopton tournament, Wright City heads back into district play to face Community on Tuesday.