Road Warriors: NMS seventh-grade girls shred Neosho, 56-7

Ralph Pokorny/Daily Mail/ Lani Coonrod looks for an open shot during Monday's game with Carthage.

The Nevada Middle School seventh-grade girls squad rolled to a 56-7 road victory Tuesday night against Neosho Middle School.

Nevada head coach Danny Penn said he was happy that his team continues to make strides with the full court press.

"We did a good job defensively, starting with our full-court press," he said. "Calli Beshore and Payge Dahmer both got some easy layups off steals."

Penn said his players responded well to Neosho's "aggressive" man-to-man defense.

"We were able to run our pick and roll successfully a few times," he said.

Despite the seventh-graders scorching play through eight games, Penn, like any good coach, still finds flaws with his squad.

"Defensively, we need to get better at moving our feet and not trying to play defense with our hands," he said. "Better teams will beat our press if we don't use our feet more than our hands. So it's definitely an area we'll be working to improve upon."

Against Neosho, Nevada shot only 33 percent from the charity stripe.

"We also need to improve our free throw shooting," Penn said. "We only went 4-for-12 and that won't cut it in close games."

For the game, Beshore led all scorers with 15 points, followed by Dahmer with 14. Post players Teagan Charles and Jadeann Highley chipped in with 8 points apiece.

Upcoming games

The seventh-graders next lace them up against at home Dec. 1 against Joplin North, with tip off set for 5:30 p.m.

Following the Joplin North contest, the Tigers will travel to Fort Scott the following day.