Tigers drop tough contest at home

Nevada senior Tyler Dobson scores two of his 11 points during Wednesday's make-up game against the Warrensburg Tigers. --Ralph Pokorny/Daily Mail

Just one day after suffering a crippling road loss at the hands of the Bolivar Liberators, the Nevada Tigers got back into action in a make-up contest Wednesday night against the Tigers of Warrensburg. The two teams were originally scheduled to square off at Wynn Gymnasium on Dec. 11, but inclement weather forced the postponement of that game and Wednesday night ultimately became the only time both sides could agree on.

The Tigers came into the contest with a heavily depleted roster due to injuries to Ross Wolfe and Kyle "Bubba" Banes. Banes injured an ankle Friday night at the Courtwarming game against the McDonald County Mustangs and Wolfe suffered a similar injury to his ankle Tuesday night at Bolivar.

Those injuries forced head coach John McNeley to fill the bench with junior varsity players and gave the Tigers a decided disadvantage as they had just eight active players available to play. All eight of those players eventually got into the contest as the Tigers quickly found themselves in foul trouble. Two Tigers ultimately hit the five foul limit in the game, giving McNeley no alternative but to put sophomores Chris Enriquez and Silas Smith on the court in the late minutes of the fourth quarter.

The short roster and foul troubles the Tigers experienced on the night allowed Warrensburg to open up the game late and take the victory by a final score of 62-44 in a contest that was much closer than the score might imply. "I'm really proud of our effort," McNeley said. "I really thought we tried to do the right thing."

The game looked as though it would get out of hand early as Warrensburg went on an 11-0 run in the first quarter just after the Tigers opened the contest with a 3-0 lead. The Tigers quickly fought their way back, however, and continued to stay within striking distance for the remainder of the first half as they found themselves down by just four at 29-25 heading into the break.

The Tigers came out firing in the second half and quickly erased that deficit, working their way to the game's first tie at 31-31 near the midpoint of the third quarter, but were simply unable to keep up with Warrensburg's much deeper bench and eventually saw the game slip away. Warrensburg eventually went on to outscore the Tigers 31-13 to work their way to a 62-44 victory.

Thanks to the loss of Wolfe and Banes, other players who have not been known as major offensive producers for the Tigers were forced to step up and put points on the board to give Nevada a chance to stay in the game. The most notable of those was senior Tyler Dobson, who finished as Nevada's leading scorer with 11 points, despite fouling out of the game with 3:49 to go.

"He's come to where he understands what we've got to do," McNeley said of the 6-foot-3-inch center.

Despite fouling out himself with just over 5 minutes to go, Joseph Ferry wasn't far behind as he finished the night with nine in what McNeley called a very impressive performance. "He has to grow with the game," McNeley said of the 6-4 sophomore. "He's worked hard and he's been a guy that's really a treat to coach."

With that loss the Tigers fell to 5-9 on the year and will now get set to take the rest of the week off before opening the 11th annual Nevada Classic tournament against Kansas City Southeast High School on Tuesday, when McNeley hopes to have both Banes and Wolfe back in the lineup, as well as sophomore Andrew Bryson, who has yet to play this season due to a knee injury.