Tigers open with win

CARTHAGE, Mo. -- In the 57th annual Carthage Invitational the Nevada Tigers (seeded no. 3) opened up tournament play by holding off the Carl Junction Bulldogs (seeded no. 6) with a 66-62 victory.

Nevada head basketball coach John McNeley was very pleased with his team's performance.

"I was real tickled with our effort," said McNeley.

Nevada came out on a hot streak and led 21-6 at the end of the first period. Carl Junction began charging back as junior Lance Packard hit a pair of 3-pointers. The Bulldogs went on to score 14 unanswered points in the second period to make the score 21-20 in favor of the Tigers. That would be a close as Carl Junction would get to Nevada in the game.

McNeley felt that his team could have played better defense.

"We gave up a lot of easy baskets," said McNeley. "We can play better and there are things we didn't do on a consistent basis."

The Tigers continued to rattle off points as they led 34-25 at halftime. Tiger senior Matt Davis sizzled with a game-high 35 points (53% of the Tigers total points) and sophomore Jim Fay added 14 points.

Carl Junction head basketball coach Lance Robbins felt that his team had a difficult time keeping up with the Nevada offense throughout the game.

"We didn't come out mentally focused and ready to play basketball," said Robbins. "To their credit, Nevada came ready to play."

Bulldog senior Tyler Dooling led the team with 17 points and junior Matt Lawson scored 13. Turnovers were a problem for the Bulldogs and they also had difficulty rebounding throughout the game.

"We need to do a better job taking care of the basketball," said Robbins. "We need to work on our defensive rebounding and we need to run our half-court offense better."

The Bulldogs made 9 of 15 free throws (60%) while the Tigers made 14 of 24 free throws (58%).

Carl Junction clawed their way back into the game as they cut the Nevada lead by two points with a minute left in the game. The Tigers, however, sealed the victory by hitting a pair of free throws with 10 seconds remaining in the game.

Nevada will seek more success as they play Joplin at 7:30 p.m. Thursday in the tournament.