Lady Tigers maul Celtics, 51-24

Thursday, December 20, 2012
Eric Wade/Daily Mail Nevada sophomore Rilie Good shoots for two of her 21 points during Wednesday's third-place game in the Harrisonville Holiday Tournament. The Lady Tigers will face Bolivar, at 6 p.m., Jan. 7, at Wynn Gymnasium.

By Eric Wade

Nevada Daily Mail

HARRISONVILLE, Mo. -- "I still think, you know, we should have been playing for a championship. We just had a bad game the first night."

The Nevada Lady Tigers responded to a tough defeat at the hands of the Lady Bobcats of Drexel High School Monday, but more than made up for that and put for a championship caliber performance Wednesday night in the third-place game of the Harrisonville Holiday Tournament at Harrisonville High School.

In Wednesday's contest, the Lady Tigers simply never appeared to be challenged on either side of the ball and ultimately picked up the victory over the Celtics of O'Hara High School by a final score of 51-24.

"They didn't have an answer for us inside," Lady Tigers head coach Brent Bartlett said of the O'Hara defense. "They came out on our guards awful heavy and so, it opened up the inside."

Though the Lady Tigers didn't seem to have much trouble with the O'Hara defense, the same could not be said for head coach Mary Haggerty's Celtics as they simply couldn't seem to find a way around Nevada's tough defense and the Lady Tigers found themselves in a blowout early as they took a 14-5 lead into the second quarter.

O'Hara never was able to find any answers on either side of the ball and despite some noticeable rebounding struggles by the Lady Tigers, the Celtics managed just three points in the second quarter, taking a 25-8 deficit into the locker room at halftime.

"We did a good job, our girls, of switching defenses, keeping them off balance," Bartlett said.

Though Bartlett has always been known for keeping his team on the sidelines or in the locker room as long as possible to talk things out and fill any gaps in the game plan, his squad was back on the floor less than halfway through the intermission.

"There was only two corrections I wanted to talk about that I thought we needed to work on," Bartlett said. "If they came out in zone, what we needed to do a little better against that and then, we gave up some offensive rebounds that I didn't like."

The dominance Bartlett's squad showed in the opening half continued right on through the remainder of the contest, but neither offense really got much going and turnovers appeared to be the name of the game in the third quarter. That didn't stop the Lady Tigers from extending their lead even further, however, and Nevada ultimately led the Celtics by more than Haggerty's squad had scored for the majority of the second half.

When all was said and done, the Lady Tigers picked up their sixth victory by a final score of 51-24. Tonight, it was just a good effort all around," Bartlett said.

Two Lady Tigers broke into double figures on the night, led by sophomore Rilie Good's 21 points. This year's leading scorer, Tori Dahmer, finished with 13.

"I know Rilie wanted a little redemption after yesterday, missing some shots inside," Bartlett said of the 6-foot-1-inch post player. "So, (it was) one of her best games I've seen her play." O'Hara's offense was led by Madison Clark and Cyndee Reese, who finished with six points apiece.

In the other two place games Wednesday night, Butler defeated Sherwood's girls in the closest contest of the night by a final score of 41-39 in a game that wasn't decided until the final possession. Harrisonville took the tournament championship with a 38-26 victory over Drexel.

With the win, the Lady Tigers improved to 6-4 on the year and are scheduled to take the rest of the holiday break off before returning to action against Bolivar on Jan. 7, 2013. Tipoff for the first of two games scheduled for that night at Wynn Gymnasium is at 6 p.m.

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