Lady Tiger middle school squads topple Joplin East
The wins keep piling up for Nevada Middle School basketball, as both the Lady Tiger seventh and eighth-grade teams were victorious Thursday night on the road against Joplin East.
The Lady Tigers eighth-grade "A" team crushed Joplin East 45-7 to improve to 8-0. Nevada was led by guard Kaylee Duncan, who scored a game-high 14 points. Tylin Heathman finished with eight points; Brinna Ream, seven; Abby Harder and Maleigha Hinton, five apiece; Rebecca Cox, four; and Allison Bower, two.
Note: The NMS eighth-grade "B" team did not play.
Seventh grade contest
The Lady Tigers seventh grade "A" team defeated Joplin East 33-22, as Claire Pritchett torched the nets with a game-high 16 points, while guard Grace Barnes chipped in with six.
The victory improves NMS to 6-2 overall.
"We came out very lethargic tonight," NMS seventh-grade head coach Danny Penn said.
"We weren't doing a good job of moving without the basketball, and as a result, put our point guard in some tough spots early. I was very unhappy with our energy level in the first quarter."
Penn noted, "Joplin East had a couple of girls who could shoot it a little bit, and we were slow to close out and defend. As a result, they had too many open shots. I thought Ashley Mather did a nice job giving us a spark of energy."
Penn said he was pleased with his squad's second half performance.
"I thought our energy level was much better," he said. "Grace did a nice job of playing passing lanes, and got a couple steals and lay-ups in the third quarter.
"Claire did a nice job all evening working hard in the post. It was just a matter of us being able to get the ball down to her."
Penn, whose team has won six of its last seven contests, is happy with the continued improvement.
"Overall, I feel like we're getting better," he said. "We just have to fight to continue to push and make ourselves better every day. The last thing we can afford is to get content, because that's when you stop getting better.
The NMS seventh-grade "B" team beat Joplin East 37-17. For Nevada, Mather dropped in a dozen points, Macy Cussimanio, eight ---- and chipping in with seven was Hadley Bruce.