Lady Mustangs Win Opening Tourney Game
Lady Mustangs overcome early deficit with a 24-4 run, on their way to a 46-23, victory.
A quick glance at the Joplin High School boys’ basketball team revealed the Eagles are long, quick, fast and athletic. A longer look shows the Eagles are pretty good shots, too.
Four different players combined for 10 three-pointers to lead Joplin to a 69-54 win over McDonald County on Nov. 21 at Joplin High School in the season opener for both teams.
“I thought early we handled their pressure pretty well and attacked it for the most part,” said Kyle Fields in his first game as head coach at McDonald County. “We thought that would be our best offense. We thought we could make three passes and possibly get a layup if we could be strong in traps. They turned up the pressure and really highlighted some things we need to work on.”
McDonald County jumped out to an early 8-3 lead, including a pair of layups coming off passes to break the Joplin press. But back-to-back three pointers by Spencer Newell and Braeden Testerman gave the Eagles their first lead at 9-8.
Brandon McAdams hits a short jumper to put the Mustangs in the lead at 10-9 before a pair of Joplin free throws and one of two by McDonald County’s Devon Aubrey tied the game at 11.
Nate Cox then hit the third trey of the quarter for Joplin to put the Eagles on top for good. Joplin led 16-15 at the end of the first quarter and stretched a 25-22 margin midway through the second period into a 39-24 lead at halftime on the strength of four consecutive three pointers.
Joplin led 49-36 after three quarters. The Mustangs scored the first four points of the fourth quarter to close to 49-40, but could get no closer the rest of the way.
“They are so quick and athletic,” Fields said. “We need to defend the dribble first and when we had to help they kicked it out. We closed out, but they were able to hit contested jump shots and when they (didn’t make) the shot we were out of position to rebound because we were scrambling to guard them. We never did a very good job of rebounding tonight, and that was part of the reason.”
Reece and McAdams each finished with 12 points to lead the Mustangs offense. Rounding out the scoring for McDonald County were Grant Cooper with eight points, Rustan Lett seven, Sergio Dozal six, Boston Dowd four, Aubrey three and Cole DelosSantos two.
Testerman led all scorers with 20 points while Cox finished with 17.
“This was a great opener for us,” Fields said. “The kids played hard, we just have some things to fix. I thought Brandon (McAdams) stepped up and played well in his first varsity game. He hit some shots and put the ball on the floor and did some good things.”
Carthage Tournament
The top-seeded Nevada Tigers jumped out to a 16-9 lead at the end of the first quarter and stretched the margin to 29-17 at halftime before holding on in the second half for a 44-40 win over McDonald County in the opening round of the Carthage Tournament on Monday night at Carthage High School.
Cooper Reece scored five of McDonald County’s nine first quarter points before foul trouble limited his playing time throughout the rest of the game.
Reece finished with 13 points to lead McDonald County, followed by Brandon McAdams with eight points, Sergio Dozal seven, Boston Dowd and Devon Aubrey three each and Rustan Lett, Noah Jones and Grant Cooper two each.
Nevada was led by Matt Sommer with 12 points and Zach Gardner and Pat Ferry with 10 each.
McDonald County drops to the consolation bracket where it will play the loser of Carthage/Rogers on Thursday, Dec. 1. Tipoff is at 6 p.m.