Lady Tigers overcome key injury

Nevada sophomore Jordan Webb shoots over Webb City defender Aubrey Richardson during Tuesday's game at Wynn Gymnasium. Nevada won 50-42, despite losing leading scorer Afton Baldwin to an early injury. [Click to enlarge]

Nevada Daily Mail

NEVADA, Mo. -- The Nevada Lady Tigers played all but 45 seconds without leading scorer Afton Baldwin, but got a career game from Lindsay Rice and key play from Amanda Wilson as they held off the Webb City Lady Cardinals Tuesday, 50-42.

Baldwin went down with a left knee injury with 7:15 still left in the opening period and didn't return, but Wilson scored 21 points and Rice had a career-best 15 as the Lady Tigers overcame a pesky Webb City bunch.

After Webb City opened the scoring on a bucket by Kelsey Erwin, Lisa Pendrak hit a 3-pointer to give Nevada a 3-2 lead. On the play Baldwin was trying to get into position for an offensive rebound, and twisted her left knee, sending her to the floor and halting play for a couple minutes. After being tended to by the Nevada coaches and the Nevada Regional Medical Center staff that was on hand, Baldwin limped off the court, although mostly on her own power.

After sitting on the bench with ice on her knee for several minutes, Baldwin attempted to put more weight on the left leg, to no avail as the pain wouldn't subside.

"She said she did hear something pop," Nevada head coach Brent Bartlett said. "Which is not a good sign. I don't want to speculate though."

Baldwin was likely going to get the knee checked out today, with hopes of determining the extent of the injury.

While Baldwin was lost for the game, the game was not lost for Baldwin. The Nevada girls, dedicating the contest to their injured teammate, responded better without the junior on the court than they have all season.

Wilson was visibly more aggressive offensively, and Rice was nearly unstoppable in the low post.

"I thought Lindsay stepped up big time," Bartlett said. "Amanda Wilson had those 21 points, and had more good looks."

The whole team played strong defensively, as Nevada went to a box-and-one to try and neutralize Webb City standout Tasha Hedgecorth. Amanda Wilson, Kristen Badgley and Erica Klinksick shared the man-to-man assignment on Hedgecorth and the team did a great job of helping in the box zone, limiting a 19 points-per-game scorer to only six.

"It probably comes down to the way we played defense," Bartlett said. "Kristen and Erica did a great job and you've got to have help out of the box, and we had tremendous help."

Only Molly Garst was able to crack double figures for Webb City, pouring in 12 points.

Pendrak had a solid offensive performance of her own, scoring eight points and effectively running the offense from the point guard position.

The one achilles' heel for Nevada was their free-throw shooting, which was only 15 of 27 as a team. Had Wilson not hit five in a row late in the game, Nevada would have been well below 50 percent from the charity stripe.

The game was close throughout, as each time Nevada tried to make a run, the Lady Cardinals clawed their way back into it.

The Lady Tigers had leads of 24-18, 32-23 and 40-33. Each time Webb City closed to within at least four.

The key stretch in the contest came with Nevada clinging to a 41-39 advantage.

Wilson scored on a layup after an entry pass missed Rice. The junior happened to be in the right place at the right time, and converted off the glass for a 43-39 lead.

Pendrak followed by hitting one of two free throws for a 44-39 edge, and Webb City's Aubrey Richardson scored to cut the lead to three with two minutes to play.

Wilson hit one of two free throws herself for a 45-41 lead, and Rice followed by doing the same on Nevada's next possession.

Up by five with less than 40 seconds to play, Wilson was fouled while milking the clock, and she converted both free tosses. Wilson had two more free throws with 15 seconds to play for the final margin of victory.

"Webb City's a good team, it's hard to push out a lead against a talented team," Bartlett said.

Nevada (9-4 overall) evened their conference record to 1-1 with the victory, while Webb City (5-7 overall) dropped to 0-2.

The Lady Tigers will be on the court again Friday when McDonald County visits.

Conference notes: Neosho's Lady Wildcats continued to surprise people with their second conference win Tuesday, as they beat Carthage 77-57 in Neosho. Neosho's victory put them alone atop the Southwest Conference with a 2-0 record ... McDonald County did not play a conference game Tuesday, and sit at 1-0 this season.