Second half woes derail Tigers in non-con clash with Carthage

The outlook through one quarter of play appeared rosy for the Nevada Tiger basketball team in Friday's 53-43 non-conference road loss to Carthage.

The Tigers led 16-9 through one quarter of play, with point guard Logan Applegate dropping in 10 of the 16.

Despite faltering slightly in the second, the Tigers still held a 22-20 halftime advantage.

A Logan McNeley 3-ball near the mid-point of the third handed Nevada a 31-27 lead.

Back-to-back triples, courtesy of senior point guard Taris Jackson, put Carthage on top 33-31 with one minute remaining in the third. From there, Carthage never again trailed.

A major turning point occurred about 45 second later, when a Nevada player was assessed with a technical foul, which ultimately resulted in a quintet of free throw makes, and a 38-31 Carthage lead entering the fourth.

An illegal screen early in the fourth resulted in Nevada's second technical foul of the evening, as Carthage stretched its lead to 42-31.

The Tigers trimmed the deficit to 42-35, and had a chance to cut further into it with a 3-point attempt, that wound up off-target.

From there, Carthage spent most of the fourth at the charity stripe, where they were able to salt the contest away en route to the 10-point victory. The loss moves the Tigers to 14-3 overall.

For Nevada, Applegate tallied a game-high 20 points, while forward Dalton Gatman chipped in 10. Carthage shooting guard Joel Pugh concluded with 13 points, including 10-of-11 from the charity stripe — while Jackson finished with a dozen. For the contest, Carthage knocked down 16-of-24 from the free throw line.

From the second through fourth quarter, Nevada connected on just five field goal attempts.

"We allowed frustration to build, and grow, as the game went along," said Nevada head coach Shaun Gray, during his postgame radio interview.

"As the game went along, and we struggled to find the basket — the snowball effect really took over," Gray noted. "Then, whistles started to happen, that you don't agree with. And when you allow those things to snowball, and build in your mind — you're not the best version of yourself. When that happens to several individuals, we're not the best team we can be out there."

Gray continued: "If we don't play together, and play as hard as we can play, there are a lot of teams that can beat us on our schedule. We've got a choice to make — we've got to approach every game like it's a tournament championship game. We've got to approach games against teams that we know we're probably the better team against, as if it's a first-round tournament game, and if you don't win it — you don't advance. When we're in those situations I think we play pretty well, we rise to the occasion.

"When we're in situations we feel like it will just be business-as-usual, roll the ball out and we'll get the win, we haven't had the right mind-set in those situations, and it has to get better."

Other action

The Tigers wound up absorbing a sweep, as both the junior varsity and C-team fell to Carthage.

Nevada's JV team, fresh off the El Dorado Springs junior varsity tournament championship, was upended 44-40. Nevada's freshman team, meanwhile, was defeated, 40-16.

In the El Do tourney semifinals Wednesday, the fourth-seeded Tigers knocked off top-seeded Fort Scott (Kan.), 35-22, as Kartman Highley and Case Sanderson combined for 21 points. Nevada then toppled No. 2 seed Skyline, 46-43 in the championship game Thursday.

Sanderson paced the Tigers with a team-high 13 points. Additionally, Sanderson and Highley were named to the All-Tournament team.

Nevada's middle school teams were also in action, on the road Friday at Cassville. Nevada's eighth-grade A-team fell, 44-29, while the NMS 8B team won, 27-22.

Nevada's 7A team was victorious, 38-24 — while the NMS 7B team bested, 16-10.

Up Next

The Tiger varsity team returns to the court for Tuesday's Big 8 Conference home matchup with Monett.