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Tigers pull away late as Thompson’s 20 points spark 70-54 victory over Smith-Cotton
A well-balanced attack, led by Matt Thompson’s varsity career-high 20-point night, fueled the Nevada Tigers to a 70-54 throttling of visiting Smith-Cotton High School Friday night at Wynn Gymnasium.
The West Central Conference victory improves the Tigers to 5-1 overall and 3-0 in WCC-play. Nevada has won 23 of its last 25 contests dating to last season.
Thompson, a 6-foot-4 wing-forward, seemed to be on a mission from the opening tip. His 3-pointer on Nevada’s initial possession was followed by back-to-back driving lay-ins, staking Nevada to an early 7-1 advantage.
Thompson also scored the final points of the first quarter on a breakaway lay-up as Nevada led 19-13.
A highlight reel drive-and-score by Smith-Cotton 5-3 guard Keith Hawkins, followed by a Tyler Williams bucket on a backdoor cut, trimmed Nevada’s advantage to 19-17 early in the second. With five minutes remaining in the half Nevada freshman point guard Logan Applegate drilled a three from the right wing, putting the Tigers on top 26-21.
Nevada, however, was forced to play most of the second quarter without star forward Clay Gayman, who was in early foul trouble. With Gayman on the bench the Tigers were boosted by their accurate long-range shooting, as senior guard Braeden Hinton connected from beyond the arc to hand Nevada a 29-24 lead at the midpoint of the second quarter, with the Tigers going into the break on top 33-28.
The Tigers stayed hot as Hinton and junior guard Carter Swearingen opened the second half with back-to-back threes, increasing the lead to 39-30. The Tigers pushed their advantage to 48-37 via sophomore forward Dalton Gayman’s slashing drive and lay-in. Dalton Gayman ended the quarter with another close-range bucket for a 50-42 Tiger lead.
Opening fourth quarter baskets from Terrence Calloway and Christian Finley closed the gap to 50-46 with 7:03 remaining. Nevada, however, broke the game open with a 13-1 run, capped by a Clay Gayman breakaway lay-up. A Clay Gayman assist to Thompson on a 2-on-1 fastbreak put the Tigers up 66-51, as Nevada coasted to the final 16-point victory.
“I thought our boys played hard tonight,” said Nevada head coach Shaun Gray. “We did a pretty good job in the full-court of breaking their pressure and getting good looks, while getting several transition buckets.”
Gray, however, said he thought his squad was a “little sloppy” offensively in the half-court sets.
“Against Smith-Cotton’s half-court set defense, I thought there were several times where we either got in too big of a hurry or forced too many shots,” noted Gray. “We need to be more patient. You look at the scoreboard and see that we scored 70 points — a lot of that was in transition. I thought if there was a weakness or deficiency for us, that it was in the half-court (set) offensively.”
Gray said he was thoroughly impressed with Thompson’s sparkling performance, as the junior finished with 20 points, 5 rebounds and 3 steals.
“Matt played well without the ball in his hands,” said Gray. “He sprinted the floor, beat people down the floor, and was able to score.”
Gray said Thompson creates major match-up problems with his size on the perimeter.
“They’re either going to be too small for him or not as quick as he is,” said Gray. “He did a good job of taking advantage of those match-ups, and did a good job of moving without the ball. With Clay on the floor, it’s a situation where Matt is going to get a lot of open looks. And the more he learns to play around Clay, and in tandem with him, he’s going to have some more big nights.”
For Nevada Clay Gayman wasn’t the only one in foul trouble, as Thompson, Swearingen and Applegate all had two fouls apiece in the first half.
“That’s really the first time this year that we’ve had multiple people in foul trouble,” said Gray, as the Tigers switched to a 2-3 zone in the second quarter, with 3-2 and 1-3-1 zones sprinkled into the mix. “Switching to a zone was to make their guards uncomfortable and to make them have to do more thinking, to where they weren’t being quite so aggressive — and to keep them off-balance.”
Added Gray: “We did a much better job in the second half of keeping ourselves out of trouble.”
Gray said he was pleased that his club was able to keep Smith-Cotton at arms length for the majority of the evening, despite several strong Smith-Cotton runs.
“They were resilient,” said Gray, describing his squad. “Resiliency and toughness are big-time attributes to have in players and have in a team. When you can take a hit like that when a team makes a run, and you can withstand it, and do it time and time again — that toughness and grit is something you can lean on in future games. And I thought the crowd had a big part in that too. Every time Smith-Cotton would make a run, we’d come back and make a play and the crowd would really energize us.”
In addition to Thompson’s 20, Clay Gayman concluded with 17; Dalton Gayman 12 — including 8-of-12 from the charity stripe; and Applegate chipped in 10. Smith-Cotton was led by Finley, who finished with a game-high 21 points.
Meanwhile, Nevada’s junior varsity squad (3-3) dealt Smith-Cotton a 40-36 defeat, as forward Trey Beachler led the way with 14 points, Grant Miller added 7, and Logan McNeley had 5.
Tiger notebook
Nevada starting senior forward Hunter Mason missed Friday’s contest due to a previously scheduled visit to Western Illinois University, as the standout student-athlete has committed to play football for the NCAA Division I WIU Leathernecks.
“This was something set-up several months in advance,” said Gray. “Hunter hated to miss our home-opener, but felt the visit was something he and his family needed to do — and it was a non-flexible scheduling situation with the university.”
Added Gray: “We supported his decision, and are excited about Hunter’s future with the Leathernecks next season. He will be back and ready to go (tonight) at St. Michael’s.”
In addition, junior forward Kayden Ast is currently out with an injury.
“Kayden is nursing a ligament strain in his big toe,” noted Gray. “We hope to have him back (this) week as well.”
Up next
The Tigers returned to the court today, for a West Central Conference road-match-up with St. Michael’s in Lee’s Summit. See Wednesday’s edition of the Daily Mail for full details