Tigers fall to Webb City at home

By Eric Wade

Nevada Daily Mail

Parents Night turned out to be far less than the uplifting night that the Nevada Tigers always expect as they took on Webb City Tuesday night and put on what head coach John McNeley called a "disappointing performance." McNeley said his squad lacked a sense of urgency throughout the contest and it showed as the Cardinals got ahead early and never looked back on their way to a 69-43 victory at Wynn Gymnasium.

"We just weren't ready to play, we weren't prepared to play," McNeley said. "I thought we played about a good, focused minute and a half and then from that point on, did not have a lot of dedication and commitment to what we needed to get done."

Head coach David Sherer's Cardinals came into the contest in a slump that ended with a 4-4 performance in their last eight games, accounting for nearly all of their five losses so far this season. That all came to a quick and emphatic halt Tuesday night as the Cardinals came in and had their way with the Tigers on both ends of the floor throughout the contest.

Webb City used a 45 percent shooting effort from the field in the opening half that included six 3-pointers -- four from senior Dillon Wales -- to open up the game early and take a comfortable 37-16 lead into the locker room at halftime. Those six made treys helped the Cardinals open up the contest early and allowed them to finish the first half shooting a staggering 50 percent from beyond the arc.

McNeley said, however, that the 3-pointers weren't really what led to the dominant performance by the Cardinals. After the game, he pointed to a lack of effort and execution on the defensive end for his squad that allowed Webb City to take over from the outset of the contest and pull away.

"It wasn't the 3-pointers that killed us or beat us. ... We could have lived and survived," he said. "It was the interior points that they scored that really spread the ballgame out."

Those interior points accounted for the other half of the offense that allowed Webb City to hold such a comfortable margin after the first 16 minutes. Things cooled down considerably for the Cardinals in the second half, but the Tigers were simply unable to make much headway and never really cut into the deficit all that much.

As a team, the Tigers shot 27 percent on the night and even though their offense was much less potent in the second half, the Cardinals still finished the night shooting 43 percent overall.

Aside from the shooting woes, the Tigers had another major hurdle to overcome as Webb City's defense was able to force turnovers nearly at will, eventually recording a total of 21, while committing just six of their own. Webb City won the rebounding battle by a considerable margin as well, hauling in 29 to Nevada's 19.

Junior Breckin Williams led the offensive effort for the Cardinals as he finished the night with a total of 18 points, followed by Wales with 15. For Nevada, Daniel Potter finished the night with 11 points and was followed closely by Joseph Ferry with 10 in the losing effort.

With that loss, the Tigers fell to 5-10 on the year and will set out to make some much-needed improvements as they prepare to take on Kansas City Central on Saturday on Wall of Fame induction night.

"I don't want us making excuses," McNeley said. "We need to get better."