Menu
Lady Tigers defeat Carl Junction at home
By Eric Wade
Nevada Daily Mail
The Nevada Lady Tigers varsity basketball squad opened the home portion of the 2012-'13 season at Wynn Gymnasium Tuesday night with a shot at revenge against the Lady Bulldogs of Carl Junction High School.
In the Lady Bulldogs' season-opening tournament, the Lady Tigers fell just short to the host squad on Katie Skaggs' layup that just beat the final buzzer on Saturday. Lady Tigers head coach Brent Bartlett said after that contest that although it was "hard to lose that way" and he expected to see "a barn burner all the way down to the end again" Tuesday, and that was almost exactly what he and the Lady Tigers got, but this time, it ended a little differently with the Lady Tigers taking the victory by a final score of 50-43.
This time, the Lady Tigers were the ones who got an early lead and held onto it. The Lady Tigers had a nearly identical lead to the one held by Carl Junction in the first meeting on Saturday, but rather than give it up as the Lady Bulldogs did, Bartlett's squad built that lead up to as much as 12 points in the fourth quarter and held on for the seven-point victory.
"It was a good win," Bartlett said. "We wanted it bad because they beat us with that last-second shot Saturday."
In the first meeting between the two squads, the Lady Bulldogs dominated the boards, shutting down the Lady Tigers' offense almost completely by allowing almost no second-chance shots. On the defensive end, the story was much the same as the Lady Bulldogs got two or three shots nearly every trip down the floor.
That wasn't the case Tuesday, however, as the Lady Tigers held Carl Junction to just four second-chance points. All four of those points had to come in the second half, however, as the Lady Tigers shut Carl Junction down completely on the offensive glass in the game's first 16 minutes.
Though the Lady Tigers didn't do much better on the offensive end, that was all they needed to ultimately secure their second win of the season.
Both teams came out firing in the game's opening half with tough defense, but Nevada ultimately got the better of the majority of their trips down the floor in the opening period. Neither squad really got much going on the offensive end, but the Lady Tigers got enough production to finish the first period with a 13-9 edge.
Carl Junction's tough full-court pressure gave Bartlett's squad all kinds of trouble for the remainder of the opening half, allowing the Lady Bulldogs to win the second quarter, 14-10, to knot the game up at 23 heading into the locker room at halftime.
The Lady Tigers came out ready for whatever Carl Junction could throw at them as the second half began, opening the third quarter on an 8-0 run. The Lady Bulldogs were never really able to recover from that point on and went into the fourth period down by nine at 35-26.
Nevada's lead eventually grew to 12 at 43-31, but Carl Junction picked up the pace on both ends of the floor, ultimately winning the fourth quarter, 17-15. That wasn't enough, however, as Bartlett's squad held on to take the victory by a final score of 50-43.
Tori Dahmer led three Lady Tigers in double figures with 15 points, while Morgan McNeley finished the night right on her heels with 14 and Rilie Good had 10. Carl Junction's Sydney Koch led the Lady Bulldogs with 11 points in the contest.
As a team, the Lady Tigers shot 15-for-23 from the free-throw line, which ultimately turned out to be the difference-maker in the contest. Carl Junction shot a better percentage from the charity stripe than Nevada, but ultimately finished the night with just seven makes in 10 attempts.
With the win, the Lady Tigers improved to 2-3 on the year and are scheduled to be back in action on Friday, Dec. 7, when they to take on Warrensburg in varsity/JV doubleheader that is scheduled to begin at 5:30 p.m., inside Wynn Gymnasium.