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Applegate’s 28 propels Nevada to opening-round district tourney victory over Pleasant Hill
A second half surge lifted the third-seeded Nevada Tigers over the sixth-seeded Pleasant Hill Roosters in the opening-round of the Class 4 District 13 Tournament in Harrisonville on Saturday.
The 63-52 victory advances the Tigers to today’s semifinal clash with No. 2 seed Ruskin High School (16-8).
Nevada (22-3) trailed for the entirety of the first half against Pleasant Hill. Senior sharpshooter Jagger Lawler’s early 3-point barrage helped the Roosters to a seven-point lead late in the opening frame.
The Tigers stayed close in the second quarter, due in large part to the offensive output of Logan Applegate, as the junior point guard accounted for all 11 Nevada points in the frame. Despite being unable to contain Applegate off the drive, Pleasant Hill held a 30-25 halftime advantage.
“Defensively, they frustrated us a little bit — they packed the paint with their two forwards to try to take Dalton away,” said Nevada head coach, Shaun Gray, of Pleasant Hill’s strategy to neutralize forward Dalton Gayman. “Pleasant Hill did a great job of muddying the game up, trying to frustrate us, and take us out of our normal flow.”
Added Gray: “We let some of that frustration on the offensive end lead to us being a little disengaged on the defensive end. I think our minds were thinking about what we were doing wrong offensively, as opposed to being locked in defensively. Just some miscues, letting their best shooter (Lawler) pop open for open looks, and giving up some back-door layups. And we didn’t match their physicality on the glass.”
Nevada came out hot in the second half. A Logan McNeley steal and and outlet pass to a streaking Applegate led to a breakaway lay-in in the opening moments of the third. Back-to-back buckets from Logan and Lane McNeley, followed by Dalton Gayman’s baseline jumper, punctuated an 8-0 run, putting the Tigers on top, 33-30.
Pleasant Hill’s three minute scoreless drought to open the half was vanquished on Lawler’s fourth 3-ball of the evening, knotting the contest at 33-apiece. The Roosters then regained the lead on a Lawler backdoor cut lay-in near the midpoint of the third.
Nevada seized control of the contest via a 10-1 run to close out the frame, for a 45-36 lead. Applegate accounted for the final nine points of the of the quarter, while scoring in a variety of ways.
The final frame opened with an Applegate highlight-reel caliber no-look pass to senior forward Matt Thorp for the lay-in, and a double-digit Tiger advantage. The lead swelled to 14, courtesy of Applegate’s fade-away jumper and trip to the charity stripe, completing the three-point play. A 4-0 Rooster run was snuffed out by Gayman’s one-handed breakaway jam, handing Nevada a 52-40 advantage.
Lawler did everything in his power to keep Nevada from pulling away late, dropping in 16 of his game-high 30 points in the fourth. Applegate, meanwhile, poured in 28, while Gayman tallied 22.
“Logan Applegate, driving the center of the floor in the second half, was big for us, because he was able to draw fouls and finish,” Gray noted. “Then, he would draw help, and that opened up the basket for Dalton crashing in. Logan understood that him driving was what was going to be good for us. So, just a great job of not allowing that frustration to continue, and making adjustments after halftime.”
Summed up Gray: “Proud of our guys for the resilience they showed when things were going tough, not folding the tent and mailing it in.”
Gray discussed tonight’s clash with Ruskin, slated for a 7 p.m. tip time.
“They’re super-athletic,” he said. “We’re going to have to neutralize that athleticism, slow the game down and not make it a track meet — make it a half-court game. We’ll have to hit some outside shots, as well as be strong on the glass. Their athleticism crashing the glass is something that really hurts a lot of teams.”
Gray hinted that his squad is likely to throw a heavy dose of zone defense at Ruskin.
“Zone defense against athletic teams is definitely something we’ve utilized in the past, and something we’ll look at utilizing in this game,” said the sixth-year head coach.