Nevada notches third-place at Clinton Tournament

Submitted photo/ The Nevada Tigers are all smiles after defeating Versailles 69-58 to capture third place at the Clinton Tournament: Pictured front row, left to right: Ben Sommer, Tristan Smith, Brandon Barker, and Any Heathman. Back row: Patrick Ferry, Broderick Mason, Dalton Eador, Clay Gayman, Matt Sommer, and Head Coach Shaun Gray.

CLINTON ---- The Nevada Tigers boys basketball team captured third place at the 90th Annual Clinton Boys Basketball Tournament, defeating the Versailles Tigers 69-58 Saturday afternoon.

With the victory, Nevada improves to 6-11.

Nevada was down double-digits, trailing 21-7 after the first quarter. The Tigers began to heat up in the second quarter, outscoring Versailles 23-12, slicing the deficit to 33-30 at the half.

"We found ourselves behind early due to the hot shooting of Trey Woods," Nevada Head Coach Shaun Gray said. "The boys battled back hard."

Nevada outscored Versailles 17-14 in the third quarter, knotting the score at 47-47 heading into the fourth. The Tigers poured it on in the final stanza, outscoring Versailles 22-11.

"We finally started getting stops on defense," Gray said. "We brought more pressure defense in the second quarter and second half which keyed our comeback. I'm very proud of our 'never quit' attitude, and the fact that we played harder than our opponent to finish the game."

For Nevada, point guard Matt Sommer dropped in a game-high 22 points, while connecting on two 3-pointers and knocking down 4 of 6 free throws.

"In the fourth quarter they started putting us to the free throw line and we knocked them down to ice the game," Gray said.

Three other Tigers joined Sommer in the double-digit scoring column ---- shooting guard Brandon Barker finished with 17 points, Andy Heathman added a career high 13, and freshman Clay Gayman chipped in with 11. Rounding out the Tigers scoring, Patrick Ferry added six.

All-Tournament team

Sommer and Barker were named to the All-Tournament team. Sommer ended the tournament with 62 points, for an average of 20.7 a game.

Next up

The Tigers travel back to Clinton for a Tuesday evening West Central Conference matchup. The first game is slated for a 7 p.m. tip off.