Menu
Bartlett: Future bright for Lady Tiger basketball
All is not lost for the Nevada Lady Tiger basketball team, whose season came to an end Tuesday night after absorbing a wrenching 48-45 loss to the Osage Indians in the Class 4 Sectionals in Sedalia.
The Lady Tigers are a young team, with the 2017-18 starting lineup comprised of one junior, three sophomores, and a freshman. Additionally, Nevada’s primary rotation is rounded out by three sophomores and a freshman.
Making an instant impact for Nevada this season was freshman combo guard Alison Bower. The Lady Tigers were just a couple of games into the season when Bower cracked the starting lineup. A southpaw with a feathery outside touch, Bower can also get into the lane at-will via slashing drives. Bower paced Nevada Tuesday night with a team-high 15 points.
Sophomore floor general Calli Beshore is the other ingredient that, along with Bower, forms Nevada’s elite backcourt.
Beshore, already one of the top point guards in Southwest Missouri, will look to guide the Lady Tigers deeper into the state tournament next season.
The further development of sophomore forward Teagan Charles, and sophomore guards Payge Dahmer and Hailee Lundine, will be key to Nevada’s success going forward.
Also encouraging was Nevada’s finish to the season, as the Lady Tigers won eight of their final 10 games, finishing 18-9 while doubling their win total from a season ago.
“They’re developing a personality and attitude of refuse-to-lose, and that’s a good trademark to have,” said Nevada head coach Brent Bartlett during his postgame radio interview Tuesday night.
“The experience we gained down here was tremendous,” added Bartlett. “It’s only going to help our girls. We were able to get a lot of girls playing time in this atmosphere; another tremendous crowd — all this is going to pay off down the road. These girls stay after practice every day and work on everything we ask them to work on, so it doesn’t surprise me that we’ve improved.”