Nevada bows to defending champ Willard

Willard's explosive offensive spurts undermined a spirited effort by heavy underdog Nevada at the Nevada Tiger Classic on Thursday.

Nevada fell 65-47 to talented Willard, a member of the tough Central Ozark Conference and Tiger Classic champions the past two seasons.

Nevada (5-11) played Willard (12-4) to a standoff in the first quarter. Alex Hardin's 3-pointer at the buzzer knotted the score at 12.

Willard, also nicknamed Tigers, opened the second period with a trapping zone press which created problems for Nevada. Consecutive steals and conversions by sophomore Steven Probst on the first two Nevada possessions jumpstarted Willard on its way to a 22-7 second-quarter advantage -- including a key 8-0 run in little over a minute to end the half.

"That made it tough," said Nevada coach John McNeley of the 15-point halftime margin. "It was a manageable deficit until that point and then that made us change the way we did things in the second half. We had to get more aggressive than we intended coming into the game."

Willard, buoyed by two treys by Probst and one by 2003 all-tournament selection Tyler Ryerson, extended its lead to 49-26 as the third quarter expired.

The Nevada Tigers were down, but not out.

They came storming back with a 15-1 run to trim the lead to 50-41 with about four minutes left. Nevada took full advantage of Willard's foul situation, sinking 13 of 14 from the line in the fourth period with the double penalty -- automatic two shots -- in effect most of the way. Nevada managed to convert only 3 of 9 free throw opportunities, in the first three quarters.

But, then Willard, displaying the poise all good teams possess, showed its mettle. A lightning-quick 7-0 run pushed the lead back to 16 at 57-41 with about 3:30 to go and, literally, put the game out of reach.

"We had it about where we wanted it," said McNeley, "at a pretty good pace, a pace that we thought we could compete with offensively, and then, we didn't value the basketball. We turned it over a few times and they went down and immediately converted.

"But I was really pleased with how our kids competed, played with a lot of heart and came back."

Hardin, Nevada's senior leader, shouldered a big part of the scoring load for the second straight night with a team-high 17 points, nine during the fourth-quarter run.

Freshman Bryan Campbell, again providing a scoring spark, finished with 14 points, while junior point-guard Ben Wilson, aggressively crashing the boards and creating on the offensive end, contributed six.

Willard placed four scorers in double figures, led by outstanding freshman Alex Henderson with 16. Probst tallied 13, Jonathan Huskisson 11 and Ryerson 10.

McNeley, finding positives for his young, relatively inexperienced team, said, "I think what we can carry forward with us from this game is that for about 14 minutes of the first half and for a pretty good stretch of the second, we played tooth-and-nail with a pretty good basketball team."

Nevada, 1-1 in the tournament's round-robin format, takes a day off before a Saturday matchup against Kansas City Southeast at 6 p.m.

Willard (1-0) is back on the hardwood tonight at 6:30 against Southeast.

KC Southeast boys vs. El Dorado

In a boys make-up game at the Nevada Middle School, Kansas City Southeast broke open a tight ballgame with a huge fourth quarter to defeat El Dorado Springs 59-39.

El Dorado held a slim 35-34 lead going into the final period, before Southeast exploded for a 25-4 pummeling. The Bulldogs scored no field goals in the quarter.

Ollie Outley led the Southeast Knights with 15 points. Richard Dickerson and Donte Lasker added 12 apiece.

El Dorado was paced by 6-7 center Matt Snowden with 18, while Dane Brower had nine.

Southeast is 1-0 in the tournament. El Dorado Springs fell to 0-2.

Southeast faces Willard tonight at 6:30.

Willard girls vs. Raymore-Peculiar

Willard overpowered Ray-Pec in the girls division, 60-20.

Brooke Wagner topped the Lady Tigers with 15. Shanda Harper and Erica Blackburn added 10 apiece.

McKenzie Clark scored nine for Ray-Pec (0-2).

Ray-Pec advances to the consolation game on Saturday at 12 p.m.

Willard pits its 1-0 tournament mark against Joplin, also 1-0, tonight at 5 in pool play.

El Dorado girls vs. Southeast

El Dorado called off the dogs with a 43-5 halftime lead en route to a 60-10 rout of Southeast at the Nevada Middle School gymnasium.

Kinsey Palmer led the Lady Bulldogs with 13 and Ashley Simmons had 11.

Detonna Guthrie led the Lady Knights with four, while Mykea Rowe and Ashley Bratton added three each.

Southeast (0-1) faces Nevada tonight at 8 in pool play.

El Dorado (1-1) will likely advance to the third-place game on Saturday, pending the outcome of the Willard/Joplin and Southeast/Nevada contests.