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Nevada catches Carthage Tigers by the tail
By Joe Warren
Nevada Daily Mail
Playing their steady, patient offense and an aggressive man-to-man defense, the Nevada Tigers pulled away from the Carthage Tigers Tuesday at Wynn Gymnasium, 47-32.
Earning their second consecutive Southwest Conference win, Nevada played its most consistent game of the season.
J.R. Mills and Bryan Campbell provided most of the scoring and everybody did their part on the defensive end as Nevada (7-5 overall, 2-1 in the Southwest Conference) left Carthage (5-9, 0-4) still searching for their first conference victory.
"This was a solid victory for us tonight," Nevada coach John McNeley said. "We played as well, on both ends of the floor, for 32 minutes as we have all year."
Coming out in the man-to-man defense which served them well in the McDonald County game Friday, the Nevada defense gave Carthage fits.
The Nevada guards were able to force Carthage to begin their offensive sets further away from the basket than the visitors anticipated, making it easier for the inside defenders to deny the ball on the post.
The combination added up to frustration on Carthage's part and at times led to poor shot selection and very few second-chance points.
"Our big factor of the game was our perimeter defense," McNeley said. "(Campbell) did a great job of guarding the basketball."
Individually the Nevada players all answered the call defensively. Nevada continued to look like a good man-to-man defensive team despite having played zone for most of the season.
"We've made this commitment to man-to-man," McNeley said. "We guarded them effectively."
Offensively the continued emergence of Mills got the team going in the first half.
The junior hit two threes and led all scorers with 10 points at the break as Nevada opened a 24-18 lead.
In the third quarter the surge continued as Mills hit two more from behind the arc and despite going scoreless in the fourth period he tied Campbell for a game-high 17 points.
McNeley said Mills, who has 10 three-pointers in the last two games, is shooting the ball with as much confidence as he has all season.
"I think the other night helped him," McNeley said referring to the six threes that he dropped against McDonald County in a comeback win. "That's carried over today.
"(Mills) is shooting the ball with so much confidence. You could see it in practice the last couple of days. He has that twinkle in his eye."
McNeley also commended Campbell for picking up his play even though he thinks the sophomore still has not gotten into an offensive rhythm. He said Campbell is still the go-to guy when points are hard to come by.
"Offensively, when we get stagnant, we can always go back to our old friend the pick and roll with him," McNeley said. "He's awful hard to guard."
Showing how well the Tigers played Tuesday, they had only 14 fouls all game and also turned the ball over only nine times.
"We're excited about the way we've been playing," McNeley said.
As well as Nevada played, Carthage jumped out to a six-point lead in the first quarter and appeared to be primed for their first conference victory.
With 3:24 left in the first period, Carthage senior Lucas Shepherd hit a layup to give Carthage a 10-4 lead.
Nevada went on a 9-2 run to close the quarter, taking a 13-12 lead when Mills hit a three-pointer with 1:22 left in the first.
Neither team scored after that until the second period when Carthage's Brit Hale was fouled while making a shot with 7:42 still to play in the half.
Hale missed the free throw and from there Nevada took control.
Ben Wilson scored four of his five points on consecutive possessions in the second period. A layup and a pair of free throws gave Nevada a 17-14 lead.
A layup from Mills gave Nevada a five-point lead, and after a basket by Carthage's Tyler Breitag made it 19-16, Mills hit a short jumper to push the lead back to five.
Mills hit a three from the left wing with only 0:03 left in the half and Nevada took a 24-18 lead into the break.
In the third quarter Nevada expanded the lead with a quick three from Mills on the half's first possession.
After a Carthage basket made it 27-20, neither team scored again for almost two minutes before Mills again dialed long distance to give Nevada a 32-21 lead.
Carthage appeared to start a run with back-to-back buckets from Zach Staples cutting the lead to 32-25 with 2:35 left in the third.
Nevada answered with a 6-0 run to close the period and took a 38-25 lead into the fourth.
Carthage never got closer than 12 in the fourth quarter.
Nevada will be in action again Friday when they host a very good Neosho team.
"Neosho is the class of our league," McNeley said.
The Tigers will be celebrating Courtwarming Friday as well.