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Tiger Classic ends
The Nevada boys and girls basketball teams split two closely contested games Saturday afternoon to close out the 2008 Nevada Tiger Classic Basketball tournament, with the boys losing 40-42 to the Carthage Tigers with a basket at the final buzzer and the Lady Tigers beating the Raymore-Peculiar Lady Panthers 42-40 for third place in the tournament despite two points scored by the Lady Panthers at the buzzer.
"We wanted to win awfully bad, but I've got to give them credit, they did what they had to do," Nevada head coach John McNeley said of the Tigers game Saturday with the Carthage Tigers. Carthage went 3-0 to win the 2008 Nevada Tiger Classic.
McNeley said that Nevada put themselves in a position to win the ballgame during the fourth period.
"We were up five times by two points," he said.
Although the Carthage Tigers took the lead early in the first period and led 13-8 to end the first period and 19-17 at the half, Nevada put their scoring together in the third period to tie the game and take a three point lead with two back-to-back three-point shots by David Cavener with about three minutes left in the period. Carthage added two more points but a three-point play by Jordan Kerbs ended the quarter with Nevada ahead 30-26.
Carthage fought back in the fourth quarter to tie the score at 31 each at 5:35. Caveners third trey of the night put Nevada back in front 34-31.
Carthage's Dylan Samuel-son hit his second trey of the game to tie the score at 34 halfway through the period. Carthage added four more points to have 38-34 lead with 1:08 left. A trey by Kerbs put Nevada back within one with 45 seconds left.
"Jordan was able to create that shot. It wasn't an easy shot, but one he wanted to take," McNeley said.
Carthage attempted to inbound the ball from under the Nevada basket with a full court pass that Kerbs intercepted and gave Nevada a 39-38 lead. With 11.5 seconds left Carthage inbounded the ball and were working their way to the basket when Kerbs fouled a Carthage player with 1.7 seconds. Carthage threw the ball in to a player under the basket who scored two points at the buzzer to win 40-38.
"We scored enough points to win a ballgame," McNeley said.
Jordan Kerbs led the Tigers with 17 points including two treys and 5-6 free throws, followed by Parker Richardson with eight points including two treys, David Cavener with three treys, Kyle Hughes with three points and Trevor Hinkle with two points.
"It wasn't pretty but we'll take it. It's been a long time since we played ugly and won," Nevada Lady Tigers head coach Brent Bartlett said after the Lady Tigers won the third place against the Ray-Pec Panthers Saturday.
The Tigers, who average about 18 turnovers a game, combined with the Panthers for more than 40 turnovers Saturday.
"It was a courageous game by Jordan Bell," he said.
Bell, who is the Tigers primary ball handler, went down and was helped off the court in the third period after re-injuring her ankle. About halfway through the fourth period Bell returned to the bench after being tended to by the trainer, who said that she could play.
Bartlett said that Bell told him that she could play if needed.
"Allie Irwin is giving the team quality playing time," Bartlett said of the freshman guard that was moved up to the varsity from the JV a couple of weeks ago to add some depth to the line-up.
Bartlett said that Irwin is between junior varsity and level and they are working with her to improve her skills to the varsity level.
Bartlett said that while he sees the Tigers improving overall, they still need to take better care of the ball.
"We're working to get better for districts," he said.
The district basketball tournament is the week of February 22 in Harrisonville.
The Ray-Pec Lady Panthers took a one point lead with a free throw early in the game, but two points by Nevada senior Lindsay Rice put Nevada in the lead, which they maintained the rest of the game.
Although the Lady Tigers led by as much as nine points in the third period, Ray-Pec stayed in the game and most of the time trailed by less than five points.
The Tigers led 10-6 at the end of the first period and 17-15 at the half and extended it to 32-23 to end the third period.
The Panthers opened the fourth period with eight unanswered points, narrowing the gap to 32-31 before Jordan Webb hit four straight free throws for a 36-31 lead. The Panthers added two free throws to cut Nevada's lead to three points, when a technical was called on Ray-Pec with about two minutes left.
Lindsay Rice hit one of the two free throws and Jordan Bell, who had re-entered the game added one more from the charity stripe. Rice hit a third free throw with 1:27 left in the game to give Nevada a 39-33 lead.
A Ray-Pec free throw made it 39-34 and two free throws by Nevada's Bell put Nevada in front 41-34, with 57 seconds left. Ray-Pec added another free throw and a basket to narrow Nevada's lead to 41-37 with 15 seconds left. Jordan Bell hit one more from the charity stripe with 7.7 seconds left for a 42-37 lead. A Ray-Pec trey at the buzzer made it 42-40.
Lindsay Rice led Nevada with 13 points, followed by Jordan Webb with nine points, Kadee Hughes with seven points, Jessica Harper with five points and Jordan Bell and Heather Thomas with four points each.
In other tournament action Saturday, the Nevada JV beat KC Southeast 47-28 for seventh place ending the game with four players on the floor after Cheyenne Whitson, Reba Hurst and Daven Smith fouled out.
The Carl Junction Lady Bulldogs defeated the Carthage Lady Tigers 63-54 in overtime to win the girls championship game. The Joplin Lady Eagles beat the Lamar Lady Tigers 54-40 in the girls third place game and KC Renaissance Academy beat KC Southeast 88-71 in the boys third place game.