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Lady Tigers escape by three in nail-biter
It may not have been senior night for the Nevada High School girls basketball team against McDonald County Monday (the Lady Tigers celebrated that earlier this season), but Tylin Heathman, one of the team’s two upperclassmen, stepped up like it was her final home game anyway.
Then again, it could have also been freshman night after the performance ninth-grader Clara Swearingen had off the bench.
Either way, NHS head coach Blake Howarth escaped with 41-38 win — and he’ll take it.
“We bent, but we didn’t break,” said Howarth, whose team improved to 11-10 overall and 4-4 in the Big 8 West thanks to Heathman and Swearingen each scoring 12 points. “Clara’s a freshman, but her skill is not freshman level, But then also Katie Johnson. Grace Barnes knocked down some nice shots for us. Ty stepped in. Abby Harder knocked down some shots. It was definitely a team effort. I’m proud of them.”
Swearingen made three 3-pointers in the first half, and the Lady Tigers rode a 9-0 run into halftime with a 24-13 lead — but came out of the break flat and got outscored 10-3 in the third quarter.
Junior Bailey Ast sparked Nevada by taking a charge two minutes into the final period, which led to back-to-back 3-pointers from the same spot on the right wing, both fed by fellow senior Abby Harder, by Heathman.
The buckets gave Nevada a 10-point lead, but Heathman fouled out shortly after — and could only watch from the bench as the Lady Mustangs rattled off a 6-0 run to pull within four.
Abbey Heathman eventually sank two free throws to extend the lead, but McDonald County’s Kristin Penn banked a three to pull the visiting team within three with under 30 seconds to go.
That’s when Swearingen dribbled through a the Lady Mustang’s full-court press, got fouled, and drilled two critical free throws with 24 seconds left.
“You can always count on Clara. She’s always the first one in the gym and the last one out,” Tylin Heathman said after the game. “It was tough, but I knew our team had it. They had my back.”
The Lady Mustangs hit two free throws of their own with 11 seconds left, then Penn got a look at another three right before the buzzer — but the Lady Tigers were the ones celebrating after the shot failed to find the net.
“Our girls continued to battle. We got organized in the fourth and excelled from there, and Ty definitely started it by hitting those shots,” said Howarth, whose team lost to El Dorado Springs 66-46 on Saturday in its first action since Feb. 5. “It took us a little bit to get the rust knocked off. As hard as you try to practice game speed, it’s really hard to simulate that. It was nice to get that game from Saturday and then respond and get that win tonight like we did.”
Nevada added a girls’ basketball game to its schedule for Friday. The Lady Tigers’ junior varsity squad will tip off against Logan-Rogersville at 6 p.m. inside Wynn Gym, followed by the varsity.