Lady Tigers stress team effort against Bolivar

Wednesday, February 28, 2007
The Nevada Lady Tigers pose with the championship trophy after winning the district title Saturday in Harrisonville. Nevada has put an emphasis on working together as a team and they hope that will help them against the second-ranked Lady Liberators tonight. (Front row, from left) Jordan Webb, Kadee Hughes, Kristen Badgley, Brooke Silvola and Taylor Means. (Back row) Coach Jack Tudor, Jessica Harper, Erica Klinksick, Tori Miller, Amanda Wilson, Jordan Scotten, Afton Baldwin, Lindsay Rice, Head Coach Brent Bartlett and Coach Jenny Allard.

By Joe Warren

Nevada Daily Mail

NEVADA, Mo. -- The first thing senior Afton Baldwin said after the Nevada Lady Tigers won the district championship was, "it means a lot. It feels really good because we did it as a team."

"Team" was the operative word.

When you look at the Lady Tigers, you see a sum of all parts. There is no one standout that carries the team on a consistent basis. Instead you have different girls at different times stepping up to shoulder the load. You also have role players who accept and thrive in their roles. As any good coach will tell you, the key to any successful team isn't necessarily having standout players, but instead having players who know what they can do, know what they can't do, and work within the team concept on a consistent basis.

The team concept has brought Nevada a long way this season. A 21-4 record, one of the top marks in school history. A conference championship. A district championship. A date in the state playoff sectionals tonight against the second-ranked Bolivar Lady Liberators.

Nevada head coach Brent Bartlett knows only a team effort will allow his Lady Tigers to upset the 26-1 Lady Libs.

Nevada's entire team will have to step up to slow down a squad led by junior Casey Garrison, one of the top players in Southwest Missouri.

Garrison is the complete package. At 5-11, she can shoot from the perimeter, post up and score, outrun almost anyone and she has tremendous court sense. Her 20 points and 14 rebounds against Willard in the Class 4, District 9 final helped set up tonight's date in Sedalia. Garrison averages 24 points and 14 rebounds a game.

"(Garrison) is going to have her points," Bartlett said. "We're going to try to shut down everybody else."

Shutting down everybody else won't be easy. Bolivar goes eight deep in consistent, varsity players. All eight would start for many teams.

That's why it's imperative that Nevada's players work together. That shouldn't be a problem since the senior-led squad has five girls who have been playing together since third grade.

"We can pretty much read each other's minds," Jordan Scotten, one of the team's seniors, said.

Scotten, Baldwin, Amanda Wilson, Tori Miller and Erica Klinksick are the team's seniors. They all contribute to the varsity team on and off the floor. Teamed with juniors Jordan Webb, Lindsay Rice, Kristen Badgley and Kadee Hughes, Nevada can go nine deep in any game and the Lady Tigers use that depth to their advantage.

Of course finding any advantage over Bolivar won't be easy.

The team has only lost once, and that was two months ago (Dec. 29). But instead of looking at the task in front of them as a tall order, the Lady Tigers are focusing on the fact they aren't getting any respect.

"Nobody is giving you a chance," Bartlett told the girls in practice Monday.

"They're expecting to beat us," Miller said.

The girls say those expectations put the pressure squarely on Bolivar's backs.

"It's kind of nice being an underdog," Klinksick said.

Besides, Nevada's girls aren't looking so much at the 26 wins and the No. 2 ranking as they are the fact that Bolivar is a beatable team.

"They've lost once," Baldwin said.

"No one's perfect though," Klinksick added.

Nevada has concocted a plan to take to State Fair College, site of tonight's sectional game.

"Slowing them down is going to be a big key," Bartlett said. "And so is rebounding."

The players are looking more on what they can do, rather than what Bolivar can.

"We need to take care of the ball," Wilson said.

"We need to get up, get excited," Scotten said.

Bartlett said the style of play is something Nevada has seen before, even if it came against teams the Lady Tigers struggled with.

"They remind me of Webb City and Nixa," Bartlett said. "Their mentality as far as getting up and down the floor.

"They remind me of Webb City's offense. They penetrate and dish or pass and cut."

Nevada was 1-2 in three games against Webb City and Nixa this season.

Even so, Bartlett thinks the pressure Bolivar has to win could play a factor if the game goes to the wire.

"If we can be tied or ahead going into the fourth quarter, I feel confident," he said.

The game is scheduled to start at 7:45 p.m., or after the conclusion of the boys' sectional game between Willard and Warrensburg. The winner tonight advances to the state quarterfinals in Springfield. The Nevada-Bolivar winner will play the Carthage-Republic winner with a trip to the final four on the line.

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