Lady Mountaineers Lead All The Way To Win Over Mustangs
The Mount Vernon Lady Mountaineers, led by one of the premier players in southwest Missouri, scored the game’s first 11 points and cruised to an 84-32 win over the McDonald County Lady Mustangs on Feb. 19 at MCHS.
“Mount Vernon is really good,” said Sean Crane, MCHS head coach. “Stokes (Lacy Stokes), if not the best player I have seen, she is pretty darn close. They are just a real good team. I wish nothing but the best for them. They might have a chance to do something special this year. Obviously, when you lose like that it’s hard to see any positives, but I don’t necessarily think we did anything that bad.”
Stokes scored 13 points in the first quarter to stake Mount Vernon to a 31-11 lead.
The senior MSSU commit added nine more in the second quarter as the Lady Mountaineers pulled out to a 50-18 lead at halftime.
Mount Vernon used a 25-9 advantage in the third quarter to enter the fourth quarter with a 75-27 lead.
Kristin Penn scored 12 points and Sydney Killion had nine to lead McDonald County. Rounding out the scoring for the Lady Mustangs were Adasyn Leach with seven points and Katelyn Townsend and Kloe Myers with two each.
Stokes finished with 42 points, while Ellie Johnston added 17 to lead Mount Vernon.
McDonald County claimed a 46-18 win in the junior varsity game.
Townsend scored 12 points and Myers 10 to lead McDonald County, followed by Megan Elwood and Abigail Wiseman with eight each, Anna Clarkson four, Kylan Sherman three and Analisa Ramirez one.
Nevada
The Nevada Lady Tigers used
a pair of first-half runs to build a 24-13 lead, only to have to hold on in the second half to claim a 41-38 win on Feb. 22 at Nevada High School.
Nevada scored the opening basket of the second half for a 26-13 lead but managed only one more point in the quarter as the Lady Mustangs cut the lead to 27-23 entering the fourth quarter.
Nevada stretched its lead to 10 points midway through the fourth only to see McDonald County score six straight points on a pair of steals and an offensive rebound and put-back by Kristin Penn to cut the lead to 37-33 with a minute left in the game.
After a pair of free throws by Nevada’s Abbey Heathman, Penn banked in a threepointer to make the score 39-36 with 28.9 seconds left before Nevada’s Clara Swearingen and McDonald County’s Samara Smith traded a pair of free throws to make the score 41-38 with 11.8 seconds left and Nevada having the ball underneath the McDonald County basket.
The Lady Mustangs forced a turnover in the Nevada end of the court but failed in their chance for a tie.
Penn finished with 14 points to lead McDonald County. Rounding out the scoring for the Lady Mustangs were Killion with eight points, Smith and Leach with six each and Dodson and Cooper with two each.
Nevada added a 39-27 win in the junior varsity game.
Ebenee Munoz and Megan Elwood led McDonald County with six points each, followed by Dodson with five points, Katelyn Townsend and Kloe Myers with four each and Corina Holland with two.
McDonald County falls to 10-13 overall and 3-3 in the West Division of the Big 8 Conference heading into its Feb. 23 game against Joplin. The Lady Mustangs close out their regular season at home on Feb. 26 against Hollister.