Neosho Takes Border Battle
Neosho avenged last year’s loss at McDonald County with a 60-31 win over the Mustangs on Jan. 27 at Neosho High School in the annual battle between the two
neighboring rivals.
Neosho avenged last year’s loss at McDonald County with a 60-31 win over the Mustangs on Jan. 27 at Neosho High School in the annual battle between the two neighboring rivals.
“Neosho is a good team and they played well,” said coach Kyle Fields of his team’s 29-point loss. “We didn’t have our best performance for sure. The last couple of games prior to tonight we have taken a step forward, but tonight we took a couple of steps backward. That’s going to happen with a young team without a lot of experience. “
Neosho led 11-5 at the end of the first quarter and took a 20-7 lead late in the second period before McDonald County scored the last five points of the first half to cut the deficit to 20-12 at intermission.
McDonald County’s Brandon McAdams opened the second half by hit one of two free throws to get the Mustangs to within seven points, but Neosho responded by scoring 17 consecutive points to take a 37-13 lead with 1:55 left in the third quarter.
The teams traded baskets the final two minutes of the third quarter before Neosho opened the final stanza with an 8-0 run to build a 49-18 lead.
“Hopefully we will just flush tonight’s game and learn from it and get better,” Fields said. “We go
back to conference play next week, so we just have to keep our heads up.”
McAdams finished with 12 points and Blake Gravette added 10 to lead McDonald County. Rounding out the scoring for the Mustangs were Cooper Reece with five points and Grant Cooper with four.
Neosho was led by Connor Johnson with 13 points.
Neosho added a 45-31 win in the junior varsity game.
McDonald County was led by Kirby Townsend and Cooper with nine points each. Rounding out the scoring for the Mustangs were Andrew Landers and Saul Garcia four points each, Zach Woods and Tim Shields two points each and Jason Estrada one.
The McDonald County freshman kept it from being a Neosho sweep with a 36-35 win over the Wildcats.
Leading the way for McDonald County was Koby McAlister with 18 points. Rounding out the scoring for the Mustangs were Trent Alik with eight points, Ben Mora four and Dylan Allison, Cade Smith and Colliar Gottfried two points each.
Carthage
The Carthage Tigers overcame a one-point third quarter with a rally in the final three minutes of the fourth to claim a 43-37 win over McDonald County on Jan. 24 at Carthage High School.
“I was really happy with our effort and our execution, especially defensively I thought we did some really good things,” Fields said. “Offensively we made a good run coming out after halftime. After we took the lead with about three minutes to go, we had three or four empty possessions because of turnovers and that really hurt us. That has been our Achilles’ heel all year offensively — not being able to take care of the ball. We just have to do that going forward and if we can do that, we can compete.”
Carthage took an 11-9 lead at the end of the first quarter and stretched the margin to 28-19 before the McDonald County outscored the Tigers 12-1 in the third quarter to take a 31-29 lead into the fourth quarter.
McAdams scored 16 points and Reece added 12 to lead McDonald County. Rounding out the scoring for the Mustangs were Gravette with three points and Boston Dowd, Devon Aubrey and Cooper two each.
Arkell Smith scored 16 points and Chase Johnson added 14 to lead the Tigers.
Carthage claimed a 64-46 win the junior varsity game. McDonald County was led by Reece with 11 points followed by Garcia and Dillon Aubrey with eight points each, Woods and Cole DelosSantos four points each, Townsend three, Francisco Ledezma, Estrada, Cooper and Shields two each.
Carthage made it a threegame sweep with a 67-34 win in the freshman game. McDonald County was led by Mora with 14 points followed by Alik with eight points, Gottfried four and Kevin Martinez, McAlister, Allison and Smith two each.