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Tigers, Lady Tigers complete sweep of Cassville
A varsity hoops doubleheader at Wynn Gymnasium Friday night resulted in resounding victories for both the Nevada Tiger and Lady Tiger basketball teams.
In a pair of Big 8 Conference West Division clashes, the Nevada boys dispatched the Cassville Wildcats 59-42, while the Lady Tigers followed suit with a 62-33 thumping of the visitors.
In the boys contest Cassville (6-14 overall) came out hot, as Nevada had trouble containing point guard D.J. White.
A White steal and coast-to-coast lay-in, followed by a Dane Martin 3-ball from the left corner, handed the Wildcats a 10-2 advantage.
Back-to-back knifing lay-ins by White early in the second put Cassville in front, 16-6.
"Cassville did a great job of coming out and trying to slow the game down," said Nevada head coach Shaun Gray, who collected his 100th career victory Friday night. "And, on the defensive end, we got a little lethargic."
A 7-0 Nevada blitz, sparked by Dalton Gayman's right baseline drive and posterizing jam, trimmed the Tigers' deficit to a point.
A Gayman triple from the right wing gave Nevada its first lead of the night at 20-19 with 2:48 remaining in the half. Gayman closed out the half with a follow-up lay-in off his own miss and a 3-pointer from the left wing for a 25-22 Nevada lead at the break.
Nevada opened the second half on an 8-0 run, as a pair of buckets from Lane McNeley, and one each from Logan Applegate and Gayman, gave Nevada its largest lead of the evening at 33-22.
Leading by a dozen entering the fourth, Nevada quickly increased its advantage to 15, courtesy of an Applegate trey. Late in the quarter a two-on-one fastbreak led to an Applegate no-look pass to Gayman for the lay-in and a 55-37 advantage.
Gayman led all scorers with a virtuoso 29-point, 12 rebound performance, including three 3-pointers. Applegate finished with 12 points, eight assists, and four steals.
"In the second quarter we went to a half-court zone and trap — which helped us out a little bit, created some turnovers," Gray explained. "And out of halftime, we went to a full-court zone press, which I thought really sparked us. Got our guys out in transition. The defensive pressure is what sparked it all."
The victory improves the Tigers to 16-3 overall, and 4-1 in Big 8 West-play — while the Lady Tigers upped their record to 16-3, and 5-0 in the Big 8 West division.
Editor's note: Due to the late finish of the Lady Tiger varsity contest, we were unable to file a full-game story prior to press-time. See a future edition of the Daily Mail for additional details
