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Three-peat in Nevada's sights
By Joe Warren
Herald-Tribune
CARTHAGE, Mo. -- The Lady Tiger Classic might be the name of the tournament, but it could also be referring to just the championship game at the annual girls basketball tourney held in Carthage.
The past four years, the Nevada Lady Tigers and the Carthage Lady Tigers have squared off in the title contest. Nevada has won three of those, including two straight. Saturday, they were set to try and make it a third consecutive first-place trophy, as Nevada prepared to play (who else?) the hosting Carthage Lady Tigers.
The fifth consecutive Lady Tiger grudge match was a byproduct of both teams winning their games Friday.
Nevada used two key 3-pointers by Amanda Wilson to spur a 13-4 run as they slipped by the Nixa Lady Eagles 59-54.
Carthage avenged an earlier loss to Mount Vernon this season by whipping the Lady Mountaineers 42-26.
Nevada head coach Brent Bartlett said the rivalry with their closest conference foe has been enhanced with the meetings in the Lady Tiger Classic recently.
"The rivalry's kind of been added to each year," Bartlett said.
Last season it was Nevada winning 46-43 as they outscored Carthage 20-12 in the fourth quarter to come from behind.
Lacy Leonard scored 10 of her 14 points in the fourth period to fuel the victory. Carthage's then-freshman Katrina Westhoff missed a 3-pointer with one second left in that game that would have sent it into overtime.
This year both teams have a largely different makeup.
Nevada doesn't have their two leading scorers from last season, and while Carthage returns leading scorer Meghan Waggoner, the rest of the roster has been made over due to graduation.
But even with newer rosters this season, the two teams are very familiar with each other. Bartlett said the players on the two teams have been battling each other for years.
"When you get girls that are good basketball players, they seem to play each other often," he said. "They play each other in junior high, AAU and on traveling teams."
Couple that with Bartlett being in his ninth season at Nevada and Carthage head coach Bobby Waggoner now in his eight year, and you've got two teams that are very familiar with each other.
Bartlett said the fans add to the rivalry.
"They're going to have a big crowd and it really is kind of a hostile environment," he said.
Bartlett said the key to success Saturday was going to be how well Nevada can handle Carthage's top three scoring options.
Freshmen Ryann Hartley and Denise Taylor, team with Meghan Waggoner to give Carthage a trio of players who are very adept at putting the ball in the basket.
"We have to be able to have the right girls help out on Waggoner," Bartlett said. "That's probably our biggest key. She can score and is also good at passing the ball to open teammates."
Waggoner did a lot of that against Mount Vernon Friday, as she fought double- and triple-teams the whole night. That allowed Taylor to shine, as she poured in 18 points and grabbed 11 boards thanks in large part to the attention afforded her senior teammate.
Carthage's win over Mount Vernon came after the Lady Mountaineers had beaten them in December.
Carthage led by only four at halftime Friday, but pulled away in the second half thanks to only giving up eight second-half points.
"We did play great defense," Bobby Waggoner said.
Bartlett was expecting to deal with some full-court pressure against Carthage Saturday.
"Taking care of the ball will be a big factor," Bartlett said.
Nevada did a pretty good job of taking care of the basketball against Nixa Friday. The Lady Tigers had 16 turnovers, but part of that was a result of them being pressed for most of the game. Nixa used a 2-2-1 full-court press at times and had at least man pressure on the ball the entire game.
The Lady Tigers looked much improved against the pressure than before Christmas Break. Bartlett said his team's work during the off time helped in that respect.
"The loss to Neosho (Dec. 20) definitely motivated us in practice," Bartlett said.
Neosho took advantage of a full-court press against Nevada in that win.
Friday night, it was Nixa using their height inside to build leads of 28-22 and 43-36.
Kylie Heim, a 6-0 sophomore post, and Bailey Chandler, a 5-6 wing who plays taller than she is, had large roles in building the two leads.
However, junior Afton Baldwin hit key shots each time to get Nevada going back in the right direction.
Baldwin scored 11 points in the second quarter as she led a run that turned the 28-22 deficit into a 30-29 halftime lead.
In the second half Nixa came out of the gates strong to take a 43-36 lead with 1:55 to go in the third.
Baldwin answered with five straight points and Wilson hit her first trey of the game with nine seconds remaining in the period to tie the game at 44.
Wilson, who had two points before the last shot in the third, connected on another 3-pointer to start the fourth quarter giving Nevada a lead the would not relinquish. Wilson would score eight of her 13 points in the final period, including a 5-for-6 mark at the free-throw line as Nixa made a concerted effort to slow down Baldwin.
Baldwin finished with 20 points, and the three Nevada inside players also contributed at key times as Tori Miller scored seven, while Jordan Webb and Lindsay Rice each had six.
The win over Nixa (7-7) gave Nevada (8-3) a win over the Lady Eagles in the Classic semifinals for the second straight year.
"It's a great win," Bartlett said. "(Nixa coach Randy Towe) has been coach of the year, they've won a championship in Class 4. He knows what he's doing."
Nixa was led in scoring by Heim, Chandler and Ashlee Luko, who each scored 10.
The Lady Eagles played Mount Vernon in the third-place game Saturday. The fifth-place game featured Neosho and East Newton, while the seventh-place game pitted Neosho's JV against Carl Junction.