Repeat offenders: Lady Tigers win Carthage tourney again

Tuesday, January 11, 2005

By Joe Warren

Nevada Daily Mail

Overcoming a nine-point deficit in the second half, the Nevada Lady Tigers won the championship game of the Carthage Lady Tiger Invitational, beating the host team for the second straight year for the title.

The Nevada Lady Tigers hoist the championship trophy after winning the Carthage Lady Tiger Invitational by beating the host team in the title game.

The 46-43 victory was the third win in four seasons for Nevada in the Carthage basketball tourney, and their fourth overall in the 10-year history of the event.

"I'm very, very proud of our players tonight," Nevada coach Brent Bartlett said after the game.

It was a performance to be proud of. In a game that seemed to have everything going against Nevada, the visitors plugged away against the top-seeded Carthage team.

Nevada coach Brent Bartlett argues a call that was overturned in Carthage's favor with 3:08 left in the game and Nevada leading by two. The scoreboard operator had sounded the buzzer during play to alert the officials that the clock had not been running. After the buzzer, the ball went out of bounds and initially it was ruled that Nevada retained possession. After a discussion the call was overturned giving Carthage possession and Bartlett made his case.

Nevada had only six field goals in the entire first half, and only shot two free throws during that stretch as they trailed 19-14 heading into the break.

The Nevada players must have felt like the basket had shrunk, since many of their shots were rolling around the rim but not falling.

Lisa Pendrak had three good looks from outside and each time looked to have three-point shots sunk, only to see the ball rattle out of the basket.

Senior standout Hillary Adams was struggling with her shot, coming up short for most of the night.

Couple that with Lacy Leonard trying to stay out of foul trouble against the aggressive Carthage inside defense, and Nevada was unable to mount any consistency on offense in the first half.

The Nevada defense kept the score close, as they held Carthage to only seven field goals before the break.

In the second half Carthage warmed up coming out of the locker room. It appeared that the tournament hosts would break open the game as they took a 25-16 lead with 7:10 left in the third quarter on a Meghan Waggoner three-pointer.

Adams made her only three of the night with 6:16 left in the period to close the gap to six, and the teams exchanged baskets the rest of the period. Amanda Wilson's three with 52 seconds left made the score 31-26 going into the fourth quarter.

In the final period it was Wilson and Leonard taking over the offensive burden as Nevada made a final push.

Trailing 35-28 with under seven minutes to play, Leonard hit a layup and was fouled. The senior completed the three-point play, and the lead was down to four.

That was the first scoring in a 10-2 run for Nevada.

Two Leonard free throws on another foul and a layup by the post cut the Carthage lead to 37-35.

The turning point in the game came on the next possession as Wilson hit a three with 4:35 left to give Nevada their first lead.

After Carthage forward Jasmine Western hit a layup to reclaim the lead, Wilson hit another three to make it 41-39 with 4:06 to play.

Perhaps the greatest evidence that the odds were stacked against Nevada came with 3:08 left. Neither team had scored since the last Wilson three-pointer, and Nevada had possession of the ball.

Adams was dribbling from outside the left wing and the scoreboard buzzer sounded, catching everybody off-guard. Adams looked up to see what was going on and appeared to have the ball knocked out of bounds by Waggoner, who was defending her.

The scoreboard operator was alerting the officials that time had not been running off the clock, and the officials ordered him to take 13 seconds off, taking it from 3:21 to 3:08.

The official nearest the play had signaled to give Nevada possession of the ball as play was about to resume, but Carthage coach Bobby Waggoner asked for a ruling from another official, prompting a discussion among the three referees.

The call was then changed to give Carthage the ball and that sent Nevada fans into a frenzy and Bartlett became furious.

Bartlett made his case to the referees in the middle of the floor, and was given an official warning by one of the officials to get back into the coaching box.

The call stood for Carthage and they scored on the possession to tie the game.

Nevada closed the game with good ball-handling and defense, only a 5 of 11 effort from the free-throw line down the stretch kept the score as close as it was.

Carthage freshman Katrina Westhoff missed a three at the buzzer that would have tied it, and the Nevada players celebrated on the Carthage court.

"Things were not going our way tonight," Bartlett said referring to the bad call and a cold shooting night from his players. "Amanda Wilson's shots had to be the play of the game. It gave us a tremendous lift offensively and defensively."