Nevada boys whacked by Wildcats
By Joe Warren
Nevada Daily Mail
A key stretch at the end of each half proved to be the difference in the game as the Neosho Wildcats beat the Nevada Tigers Tuesday, 51-45 in Neosho.
In the first half it was an eight-point swing that turned a 14-11 Neosho lead into a 22-13 advantage as Neosho's Phil McClintock hit two 3-pointers and had an easy layup on an inbound play to open up the lead during a two-minute stretch.
McClintock, who scored a game-high 23 points, did most of his damage (17 points) in the first half as Neosho took the nine-point lead into the break.
In the second half Nevada stuck around against the bigger, more athletic Wildcats.
With 5:08 left in the game a bucket by Bryan Campbell cut the Neosho lead to 40-35.
Neosho answered with a 10-5 run that was fueled by three Nevada turnovers and the Tigers went down by 10 points with only 1:12 left.
The Tigers hit a couple baskets late to make the score closer, making the final a fairly accurate representation of the game.
"We played defensively like I think we wanted to," Nevada coach John McNeley said. "You look at the big picture and I think our kids played at a high level for 32 minutes."
The Tigers were effective at slowing down the pace of the game, making Neosho work offensively and limiting Wildcat possessions by running a patient offense of their own.
"The pace was what we needed it to be at," McNeley said.
The Tigers had some strong offensive performances from Eric Atkinson and Eric Good inside against the bigger Wildcats.
Atkinson scored eight points and Good had four with all of them coming off good penetration and passes by Ben Wilson, Bryan Campbell and J.R. Mills.
Campbell and Mills both did a solid job of scoring and getting into the lane to help their teammates score.
Wilson went scoreless, having to use much of his energy matching up with McClintock defensively.