Nevada falls to Carthage in Tiger battle at home

Ralph Pokorny/Daily Mail Right: Nevada's 5-foot 9-inch senior Chase Domer slides out of bounds while beating Carthage's 6-foot 5--inch senior Kyle Wickland to a rebound during Thursday's senior night game at Wynn Gymnasium. Left: Carthage's Ashley Heidlage tries to block a shot by Nevada senior Jordan Webb during Thursday's make-up game with the Carthage Lady Tigers.

The Carthage Tigers came to town Thursday night and ruined Senior Night for the Nevada boys and girls basketball teams; squeaking by the Nevada boys 39-36 with a three-point shot at the buzzer and easily beating the Nevada Lady Tigers 47-34 for their final Southwest Conference match-ups.

Thursday night Nevada basketball fans saw what most would have thought impossible when for the third time in the last month the Nevada Tigers had the chance of winning a game snatched from their grasp by a last moment score from their opponent.

Showing their usual defensive prowess, Nevada held Carthage's scoring in check and led 13-7 in the first period to push their lead to 18-9 before Carthage made a 10 point run and put Nevada down 18-19. A free-throw by Parker Richardson tied the game at 19 with a minute left. A bucket by Carthage sophomore Kyle Wicklund put Nevada down at the buzzer 19-21

Nevada's defense softened in the third period and Carthage outscored Nevada 13-5 early in the period to put Nevada behind 24-35 when a trey by junior Parker Richardson with two minutes left in the period sparked Nevada's offense.

Nevada's defense let down early in the second half and Carthage racked up an 11 point lead putting Nevada behind 24-35 until a trey by junior Parker Richardson narrowed the gap to 27-35. A three-point play by senior Jordan Kerbs cut Nevada's deficit to 30-35 with 1:40 left in the game. Kerbs added two more free throws with 1:09 left to put Nevada back in the game at 32-35

Carthage inbounded the ball and a long pass was intercepted by Kerbs under the Carthage basket and with 54.6 seconds on the clock Kerbs scored from under Nevada's basket to put Nevada down 34-35.

Carthage's Wicklund, fouled by Nevada's Dan Lovinger with 52.4 seconds left, hit one of two free throws to put Nevada down 34-36.

Nevada brought the ball down court and worked it around the perimeter as the seconds ticked away and were tied up by Carthage under the basket at 9.2 seconds with the possession arrow in Nevada's favor.

Nevada inbounded the ball and missed their first shot with the re-bound ending up in the hands of senior Kyle Hughes who made a spectacular basket while falling backwards to tie the game at with .6 seconds on the clock sending Nevada fans into a frenzy and appearing to send the game to overtime, until the officials put 1.5 seconds back on the clock.

Carthage inbounded the ball to Kyle Wicklund who sank a trey at the buzzer to hand Carthage a 39-36 win.

Nevada head coach John McNeley said that to have one loss at the buzzer in a season is not uncommon, but for one team to have three in one season is almost unheard of.

"I have never experienced this in my coaching career before," McNeley said after Thursday's game.

McNeley, who usually has no trouble finding words to express his sentiments, said that he did not know what to tell his players after the game.

He said that the players never gave up and battled back to give themselves a chance to win only to lose.

"They battled their tails off," he said.

McNeley said that Kyle Hughes, whose last second shot gave Nevada a chance to win is a quality kid who works hard.

"He got the rebound and put himself in a position to score," he said.

But it was not enough.

He said that his team which is now 7-15 for the season deserve a better ending,

"I believe that everything happens for a reason and eventually we will know," he said.

The Tigers end their regular season tonight with a boy-girl double header in Webb City and then open district play Monday at 7 in Harrisonville when they play the Harrisonville Wildcats.

Senior Jordan Kerbs led Nevada's scoring with 16 points, followed by Ben Fisher with six points, Parker Richardson and Kyle Hughes with four points each and Chase Domer and David Cavener with three points each.

Carthage's Dylan Samuleson led their scoring with 12 points, followed by Chase Bruner with nine points, Jaryd Gregory with seven points, Kyle Wicklund with five points and Lane Stephens with two.

The Nevada Lady Tigers had their final Southwest Conference match-up with Carthage in a game that was never close after Nevada trailed 4-8 at the end of the first period.

In the second quarter Carthage outscored Nevada 20-7 to take a commanding 28-11 lead into the locker room despite the scoring effort of seniors Lindsay Rice, Jordan Webb and sophomore Heather Thomas who accounted for all of Nevada's 11 points in the first half.

Senior Kadee Hughes opened the third period with a trey giving Nevada fans something to cheer for. Webb added two points and Nevada fans went wild when Heather Thomas intercepted a Carthage pass in mid-air under the Carthage basket, drove the full length of the court and made a lay-up with 57 seconds left in the quarter, cutting Nevada's deficit to 18-31. Carthage added three more points to leave Nevada behind 18-34 at the buzzer.

Both teams picked up the pace of their scoring in the final period with Nevada putting up 15 points, with Hughes, Rice and Webb each adding a trey and Rice adding six points.

Meanwhile Carthage added 13 points to cruise to a 47-33 win.

Nevada head coach Brent Bartlett said that Carthage did a nice job on the court.

"I don't think we were ready to play. There was too much going on," Bartlett said.

He said that Carthage's full court pressure during the first half of the game was too much for Nevada to handle.

"You have to compete at a high level when you play Carthage," Bartlett said.

"We came back in the second half. There's no quit in these girls," he said.

The Lady Tigers finish their regular season tonight when they play their final Southwest Conference game with the Webb City Lady Cardinals.

Bartlett said that Webb City will be a tough game. They have recently beaten Carthage, McDonald County and Neosho.

Nevada's scoring was led by sophomore Heather Thomas with nine points, followed by Lindsay Rice with eight points, Jordan Webb with seven points, Kadee Hughes six points from two treys and Taylor Means with one trey.

Carthage had three players in double figures, junior Ryan Hartley with 16 points including four treys, followed by Kori Gregory and Denise Taylor with 10 points each, Ressie Catron with four points, Katrina Westhoff with three points, Aleisha Joyce with two points and Ashley Wooldridge and Emily Snyder with one point each.