Lady Wildcats Top Lady Mustangs
The Neosho Lady Wildcats used a 10-2 run at the end of the first quarter and the beginning of the second quarter to help the Lady Wildcats build a 19-8 lead at halftime on the way to a 45-29 win over the McDonald County Lady Mustangs on Jan. 27 at Neosho High School.
The Neosho Lady Wildcats used a 10-2 run at the end of the first quarter and the beginning of the second quarter to help the Lady Wildcats build a 19-8 lead at halftime on the way to a 45-29 win over the McDonald County Lady Mustangs on Jan. 27 at Neosho High School.
“If we make our free throws in the first half it’s either a tie game or we are ahead,” said coach Blake Short. “We had too many unforced turnovers. Instead of making the pass to the right person, we were making passes over the defense that were unnecessary.”
Neosho led 31-19 late in the third quarter, but scored the final four points of the period and then used an 8-4 start to the fourth period to build a 43-23 lead midway through the final period to seal the win.
“I felt like our defense was great in the first half,” Short said. “Our defense is not what is hurting us — it’s scoring the basketball that we are struggling to do. We got it going in the second half, but we have to start earlier. We just have to put four quarters together.”
Samantha Frazier scored seven points and Meagan Mills and Tricia Wattman had six each to lead the Lady Mustangs. Rounding out the scoring for McDonald County were Caitlynn Sedillos with four points and Madison Hall and Ragan Wilson with three each.
Allison Burr led Neosho with 12 points.
Neosho does not have a girls’ junior varsity team, but the McDonald County freshman girls’ defeated the Wildcats 44-23.
Rita Santillan led McDonald County with 18 points. Rounding out the scoring for the Lady Mustangs were Mattie Leach with eight points, Grace Poland, Jaylie Sanny and Alexia Kitlen four each, Emily Thornton three, Addy Mick two and Allison Nicoletti one.
Webb City
Webb City outscored McDonald County 11-1 in the third quarter to turn a 16-11 halftime advantage into a 27-12 lead entering the fourth quarter before having to hold on late for a 33-26 win over McDonald County on Jan. 24 at MCHS.
“We killed ourselves in the third quarter,” Short said. “We just didn’t show up. What I did like to see was when we got down 17 and then cut it to three. Earlier in the year once we got down like that we would have got beat by 30. But now the girls our competing and we are getting better. We are fighting through things that we would
have put our heads down earlier this year. Other than the third quarter, I thought we did a lot of the things we wanted to do. We are going to try to continue those things and hopefully have some better results.”
McDonald County scored the first six points of the fourth quarter before the teams traded free throws. Trailing 29-19, the Lady Mustangs scored seven consecutive points and had the ball with a chance to tie, but the Lady Cardinals forced a turnover and then hit four free throws in the final minute to secure the win.
Hall led McDonald County with nine points, seven, including two three pointers, coming in the fourth quarter. Rounding out the scoring were Wilson with five, Frazier, Cloee Helm, and Mills three each, Sedillos two and Wattman one.
McDonald County claimed a 28-27 win in the junior varsity game. Santillan scored nine points to lead the Lady Mustangs followed by Jordan Witt with seven, Frazier four, Leach and Leslie Yousey three each and Kitlen two.
McDonald County, 5-12, is at the Seneca Tournament this week. The Lady Mustangs played Seneca on Monday night and Monett on Tuesday with the finals set for Saturday, Feb. 4 at a time to be determined.