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Defense sparks Nevada girls past Carl Junction
By Jason Peake
Daily Mail Sports Editor
CARL JUNCTION -- Converting steals into points allowed the Nevada High School girls basketball team to pull away for good in a 54-46 victory over Carl Junction on Tuesday night.
Fueled by its defense, the visiting Tigers used a big third quarter push to put the Bulldogs away.
"Our third quarter was big for us," Nevada Coach Brent Bartlett said. "That was basically the ballgame. Our zone defense has really bailed us out the last two games."
Up six at the half, the Tigers came out in the third quarter in a zone defense, with Ashley Shumaker and MacKenzie Pritchett out high. The pair sparked the Tigers by disrupting and hounding Carl Junction's guards into numerous mistakes. Shumaker grabbed three steals in matter of two minutes, Nevada went on an 11-2 run and suddenly led 39-22.
"Ashley Shumaker is long and lean and quick and can jump," Bartlett said. "And she got some big steals for us. That kind of got us jump-started."
The Tigers led the rest of the way en route to the win.
Nevada improves to 4-1 on the season with the win.
"We didn't play pretty at all," Bartlett said. "We made some mistakes, but I'm proud of the girls. They kept competing when things weren't going our way."
Shumaker scored 13 points to lead the Tigers. Post players Tori Dahmer and Tiffani Long added 12 points apiece.
"I thought our post play was really good," Bartlett said. "And Megan Harper hit two critical shots for us. And it was just another great team effort."
The Tigers head to Warrensburg on Friday.
Nevada 54, Carl Junction 46
NE 10 16 16 12 -- 54
CJ 11 9 13 13 -- 46
Nevada: Long 12, Dahmer 12, Shumaker 13, McCall 4, Harper 6, Pritchett 2, Bartlett 2, McNeley 1, Harbit 2. Three-pointers: Harper 2.
Carl Junction: Eberhart 3, Boyd 9, Beck 7, Skaggs 15, Campbell 1, Koch 2, Mitchell 2, Murty 2, McPherson 5. Three-pointers: Boyd 1.