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Tigers turn up heat on Carthage, cruise to 18-point victory
An extended 27-6 second half run lifted the Nevada Tigers to a convincing 76-58 victory over Carthage Friday night at Wynn Gym.
The non-conference home win upped the Tigers to 13-5 overall, and was their ninth consecutive victory.
Nevada trailed for virtually the entire first half, and despite Carthage’s eight 3-pointers were down only 35-31 at the break.
Nevada’s leading rebounder, junior forward Dalton Gayman, was unavailable Friday night, further compounding Nevada’s first half woes.
“We really put an emphasis on getting out (and defending) shooters in the second half,” said Nevada head coach Shaun Gray.
The Tigers fell behind, 40-33, with 5:30 remaining in the third.
An 8-0 blitz, via back-to-back Lane McNeley triples, and capped by Logan Applegate’s short bank-shot, handed Nevada a 41-40 advantage at the midpoint of the third.
A key moment in the contest came at the 1:03 mark of the third as Carthage’s 6-foot-8, 215 pound junior standout Alex Martini was whistled for his fourth foul.
“Martini is one of the best post players that we’ll see all year,” said Gray. “The plan was just to try to deny him the ball within about eight to 10-feet. Then have Matt front him, so they would have to (feed) him with lob passes. And then we would bring a guard from the back-side to swarm him. But we did a poor job early of denying the ball. When he did catch it (deep), he was a load.”
With Martini on the bench Carthage managed to close out the third on a 4-0 spurt, trimming Nevada’s advantage to 47-46.
The Tigers opened the fourth on an 8-0 run as Matt Thompson’s 3-ball handed Nevada its largest lead of the evening, 55-46, with seven minutes remaining in regulation.
Carthage suffered a major blow at the 6:47 mark of the fourth as Martini was hit with his fifth foul on an over-the-back call. Martini fouled out with just six points, and was held scoreless from the second quarter on.
From there the Tigers began to pull away, as Thompson’s traditional 3-point play, followed by Carter Swearingen’s deep three, increased Nevada’s lead to a dozen at 63-51 with five minutes remaining, as the Tigers outscored Carthage 29-12 in the final frame.
In addition to Thompson’s game-high 26 points, Applegate finished with 18, Lane McNeley 14, and Logan McNeley, 11.
Lane McNeley starred in the third quarter as Nevada’s seven-point deficit evaporated after the sophomore sharpshooter splashed consecutive triples. Lane McNeley had four treys on the night, and Gray lauded his breakout performance.
“He’s a guy that has shot it well for us all season, but we’ve only been able to get him two or three looks per game,” explained Gray. “We were able to get him more open looks tonight, and man, he is a heck of a shooter. This was a big game for him, and it should fuel his confidence going forward.”
After being named to the Kansas Army National Guard All-Tournament team, Thompson continued to dazzle Friday night.
“Matt was big for us tonight,” said Gray. “Any time we’re short a guy, we talk about how everybody on the team needs to pick up the slack — and working together to make up for what we’ve lost,” recounted Gray. “We talked about that when Matthew was out with the injury, and tonight without Dalton.”
Added Gray: “Matt seemed to kind of take it upon himself tonight to try to be big inside, rebounding the basketball. And Martini had to come out and guard him.
Continued Gray: “Any time you get a 6-7, 6-8 kid out on the perimiter guarding, you feel like maybe you can take him to the basket.
“Matt was able to get open shots when Martini was slow getting out to him, and when he didn’t get out to him Matt was able to beat him to the basket.
“So it was a really good job by Matthew of taking advantage of a little bit a of a mismatch there.”
Up next
The Tigers return to the court Tuesday evening for a Big 8 Conference West division road contest at Monett.
Nevada is currently sitting in first place in the Big 8 West, with a perfect 3-0 record.
See a future edition of the Daily Mail for all the latest on Nevada Tiger basketball