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Lady Tigers fall to Grain Valley in state sectionals, 36-27
LEE'S SUMMIT — The stars were aligned, and all the pieces seemed to be in place for the Nevada Lady Tigers to make a deep (Class 4) state tournament run.
Having fallen in the sectional-round the past two years, Nevada was again unable to break through past that stage, succumbing to the Grain Valley Lady Eagles on Tuesday night, 36-27.
Buckets from guard Alison Bower and forward Lindsay Phebus handed the Lady Tigers a 4-0 advantage at the 5:20 mark of the opening frame.
Opportunity knocked for Nevada, but they were unable to capitalize on several open looks, as they led by a scant 4-2 after one quarter of play.
Fresh off a 35-point performance in their district championship victory, Grain Valley freshman forward Grace Slaughter opened the second quarter with a turnaround jumper, knotting the contest at four-apiece.
After another Phebus close-range bucket for Nevada's final lead of the evening, Grain Valley responded with a 7-0 blitz, capped off by a Slaughter 3-ball from the right corner, for an 11-6 Lady Eagle lead.
Nevada quickly trimmed the deficit to three, via Tylin Heathman's pull-up jumper, but trailed at the half, 14-10.
Momentum swung heavily in Grain Valley's favor at the onset of the second half, with the Lady Eagles opening the half on an 8-0 spurt. The run was sparked by a Jordyn Weems' triple, and punctuated by a Malia Gutierrez trey, as Grain Valley opened a commanding 22-10 lead.
Nevada (23-5) struck back with a 5-0 run, courtesy of a Bower 3-pointer, and senior point guard Calli Beshore's knifing lay-in down the center of the lane that sliced the deficit to seven with 4:40 remaining in the third.
The Lady Eagles, however, closed out the frame on a 5-1 run. The final points of the third came on Slaughter's short jumper at the 1:20 mark, increasing Grain Valley's lead to 27-16.
Nevada scored the first five points of the final frame, but used up nearly three minutes of the clock doing so. The run, capped by Phebus' hard-fought offensive rebound and stick-back, sliced the deficit to six.
Grain Valley emerged from a full timeout looking to milk as much clock as possible. After passing the ball around the perimeter for a full minute, the Lady Eagles nearly turned the ball over. Bower, however, was called for a tough-luck foul in a collision near half-court as she attempted to corral the ball for what could have been a game-changing breakaway bucket.
Nevada managed to keep it close as precious seconds ticked away. Heathman's 8-foot jumper with 1:24 remaining cut Grain valley's lead to 32-25. The Lady Eagles were then able to salt away the contest from the free throw line en route to the grind-it-out 36-27 victory.
Slaughter finished with a game-high 18 points, including 5-of-5 from the charity stripe. Beshore finished with a team-high eight points, while Phebus chipped in six, and Bower five.
The Lady Tigers concluded with only one 3-point make on the night, while knocking down 6-of-14 free throws (43 percent).
The tough shooting night can be attributed to Grain Valley's size advantage, as their match-up zone defense stifled Nevada from the opening tip.
"If you had told me we would only score 27 points, I would have thought you were crazy," said Nevada head coach Brent Bartlett, as his club entered the night averaging 58 points per game.
Added Bartlett: "We've been held down in a half before, didn't shoot well, but never a full game. It just didn't go in the hole. We hustled, we held them defensively to 36 points, right where we wanted to be. But again, the shots did not fall."
Bartlett continued: "We had an awful lot of open-look shots. It didn't fall from the free throw line, it didn't fall from outside. We went on a 5-0 run one time, that was the only momentum we had. They're well-coached, we knew they were going to be a tough team."
Bartlett noted his team looked to get in some extra shoot-around time prior to tip off, primarily due to the difficult sight-lines at the Lee's Summit High School gymnasium.
"I think it threw us off a little bit, that's why we tried to do a lot of shooting before the game," Explained Bartlett. "I think it affected us a little bit."
Bartlett, in his final game as the Lady Tiger head coach, said he couldn't be prouder of his squad.
"Tough loss, but we're leaving with our heads held high," he said. "This team made history this year, winning a third straight district championship, and back-to-back undefeated conference championships. Never been done since I've been here. A lot of memories that we've had, it just wasn't our night tonight. It didn't happen."
Bartlett concludes his 28-year prep head coaching career with a record of 459-208, and with 25 of those seasons spent on the Lady Tiger sideline.