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Tiger teams fall at home to Archbishop O'Hara
It was a tough night on the hardwood for both the Nevada Tiger and Lady Tiger basketball teams Tuesday night against the visiting Archbishop Celtics and Lady Celtics in a boys-girls West Central Conference doubleheader.
The Tigers were defeated 70-46 while the Lady Tigers fell 56-31.
The Tigers (5-2 overall, 2-2 WCC), looked good early, as junior forward Clay Gayman opened the game with an old-fashioned 3-point play, scoring in the low-post while drawing the foul and then knocking down the free throw.
Midway through the quarter, Gayman threw down a dunk off an inbound pass, tying the score 7-7. On the following possession, Nevada regained the lead at 9-7 via Gayman's offensive rebound and putback.
O'Hara quickly went back in front, as top-flight junior guard Deron McDaniel buried a 3-pointer from the right wing. The quick pace continued as Nevada forward Patrick Ferry scored from the right block, giving the Tigers an 11-10 lead.
Back at the other end, a McDaniel pull-up jumper handed the Celtics a 12-11 advantage. The teams continued to exchange barbs as the quarter wore on, as a Matthew Sommer drive-and-dish to Gayman for the lay-up knotted the score at 15-15.
The Tigers then went up 17-15 when senior Myles McNeley knocked down a pair of free throws. The action-packed first quarter came to a close with O'Hara guard Pedro Leverette connecting on a 10-foot jumper.
The second quarter, however, spelled doom for Nevada, as O'Hara used a 25-0 blitz to take a commanding 42-17 halftime lead. During the second frame, O'Hara capitalized on a plethora of Nevada turnovers. Some of the turnovers were unforced errors, while others were due to the Celtics stifling defense.
Early in the second quarter, back-to-back triples from McDaniel and Landon Vahle, followed by McDaniel being fouled on a 3-pointer and hitting all three free throws, handed the Celtics a 30-17 lead. On the following possession, Vahle buried a trey from the right corner, stretching the Celtics lead to 16.
From there, three consecutive Nevada turnovers led to a Corbin Jones breakaway lay-in; a McDaniel 3-pointer; and another Jones lay-in as O'Hara's lead ballooned to 40-17.
McDaniel led all scorers in the first half with 21 points, including three 3-pointers while also going 5-of-5 from the charity stripe. Meanwhile, Gayman had a team-high 9 points.
Sommer opened the second half with a 3-pointer, but Nevada was unable to further close the gap, due in large part to the play of Celtics 6-foo-5 junior Arinze Mgbemena, who was scoring at will on the low block.
Mgbemena may have found it easier to score in the post, as Gayman remained on the bench the entire half. Gayman's absence was puzzling, as he only had two fouls. After only scoring two points in the first half, Mgbemena connected on all six of his third quarter field goals attempts, while finishing with 16 second half points.
For Nevada, Sommer finished with a team-high 13 points, followed by Gayman with 9 and McNeley, 5. For the Celtics, McDaniel poured in a game-high 27 points.
Girls contest
The Lady Celtics jumped out to a 4-0 advantage. O'Hara then went up 6-2 after an Amiyah Hatten offensive rebound and putback.
The Lady Tigers trimmed the lead to 6-4 after lightning-quick point guard Calli Beshore drove the lane and dished to Payge Dahmer for the lay-in. With 45 seconds remaining in the first quarter, a Beshore pull-up jumper cut O'Hara's lead to 9-6.
The Lady Celtics opened the second quarter on a 12-2 run to go up 21-8. Nevada responded with back-to-back 3-pointers from junior guard Brooke Sargent and Beshore, as the Lady Tigers trailed by seven early in the third quarter.
O'Hara then began to pull away, increasing its lead to 35-20 late in the third quarter. The bulk of the Lady Celtics third and fourth quarter scoring came from Hatten and All-Conference guard Tiana Gipson.
"(Gipson) is maybe the quickest guard in the conference," Lady Tigers head coach Brent Bartlett said.
Bartlett said he was unhappy that O'Hara appeared to be running the score up on his squad when the game seemed to be out of reach in the final stanza.
"I thought they were trying to run up the score shooting three's," Bartlett said, "and also going with a full-court press on us in the fourth quarter. So I didn't appreciate that."
Bartlett added that he was pleased with the overall play of his young squad, who is now 3-4 overall and 1-3 in WCC-play.
"There's not quit in this team," Bartlett said. "It takes a while to get polished. We're going to have some growing pains. But as long as we stick together, stay positive and not get too discouraged, we'll be okay."
Bartlett continued, "We had them right where we wanted them in the first half. We kind of slowed them down. We didn't want to get into a running game, but we just didn't knock down the shots in the first quarter, and then we had a lot of turnovers in the second quarter.
For the Lady Tigers, Beshore finished with a team-high 9 points, while Sargent added 7, including two treys.
JV contests
The Nevada Tiger junior varsity boys (4-3 overall) defeated O'Hara 56-32 while the Lady Tigers (3-3 overall) beat the visitors 42-22.
Next up
The Lady Tigers return to the court Thursday for a varsity-junior varsity non-conference road doubleheader with Harrisonville. The junior varsity tip off has been moved up to 5 p.m.
Meanwhile, the Tigers are back in action Friday, as they face Warrensburg in a West Central Conference contest.