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Lady Tigers fall in third-place game at Carl Junction
By Eric Wade
Nevada Daily Mail
CARL JUNCTION, Mo. -- "It's hard to lose that way." That very well might be the understatement of the year from Nevada Lady Tigers head basketball coach Brent Bartlett.
Bartlett's Lady Tigers went into the third-place game of the Carl Junction Invitational tournament Saturday afternoon with high hopes of rebounding from a 67-64 loss at the hands of Carthage in pool play Friday, but Carl Junction's Katie Skaggs had other ideas as she put up a layup that just beat the buzzer to lift the Lady Bulldogs to victory by a final score of 46-45.
"It was tough," Bartlett said. "You know, you always want to get two wins in a tournament."
Skaggs, who scored nine points in the contest for Carl Junction, had six in the fourth quarter, but none of her baskets were bigger than the last one. Carl Junction (2-1) called a timeout with 6 seconds left in the contest, trailing 45-44 and Lady Bulldogs head coach Tiffany Dirks drew up the play to Skaggs, who got the game-winning shot off less than a second before the final buzzer sounded.
The Lady Tigers struggled throughout the contest on both ends of the floor. Not only did the shots simply not want to fall in many cases, but Bartlett's squad couldn't seem to pick up a rebound on either end of the floor through much of the contest, either.
"We just didn't rebound well at all," Bartlett said. "And then, our turnovers hurt us really bad and we still had an opportunity to win the game. It was disappointing that we gave up as many offensive rebounds as we did."
Despite all of the struggles, however, Bartlett did get to see one thing about which he couldn't have been happier. Nevada trailed, 40-32, early in the fourth quarter and though they could have simply rolled over and accepted defeat, the Lady Tigers went on an 8-0 run to tie the game at 40 with 4 minutes, 24 seconds left.
Nevada took its first lead since midway through the third quarter when Morgan McNeley made an inside basket to put the Lady Tigers up, 45-44, with 10.9 seconds remaining.
"I'm proud of our girls for our comeback," Bartlett said. "I thought we had a tremendous comeback, gave ourselves a chance to win."
Three Lady Tigers scored in double digits, led by Tori Dahmer with 11 and Rilie Good and McNeley with 10 apiece. Freshman Maria Chism led Carl Junction with 13 points.
McNeley was also the only Lady Tiger to find her name on the All-Tournament team.
With the loss, the Lady Tigers fell to 1-2 in the tournament, 1-3 overall on the season, and will make their home debut tonight with a rematch against the Lady Bulldogs in a doubleheader with head coach John McNeley's Tigers that is scheduled to begin at 6:15 p.m.
"I think we're going to get the exact same," Bartlett said. "I think it's going to be a barn burner all the way down to the end again."
Webb City 51, Carthage 43
With 5:20 left in the third quarter, Webb City point guard and eventual tournament MVP Mikaela Burgess was forced to hit the bench with four fouls. That didn't seem to matter, however, as the Lady Cardinals held a seven-point lead when Burgess left the game and held on to beat Carthage, 51-43, in the championship game of the Mercy Sportscare Classic tournament at Carl Junction High School Saturday.
Casey Heger led the Lady Cardinals with 14 points in the contest, while Desirea Burge added 12 and Burgess had 10. The Lady Tigers were led by Leigh Ann Craig, who finished the day with 10 points.
Liberal 49, Monett 32
Baylee Robertson and Rachel Dugan scored 16 points apiece as Liberal knocked off Monett by a final score of 49-32 in the fifth-place game at Carl Junction Saturday. Liberal led, 29-11, at halftime, and never looked back, cruising to a dominant victory.
Brooke McLean led the Lady Cubs with 14 points.