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Day: January 28, 2022

HOOPS ROUNDUP: Joplin, Carthage girls earn wins; McAuley Catholic boys beat Jasper; TJ squads suffer losses

Posted on by Lucas Davis

JOPLIN GIRLS OPEN I44 LADY’S CLASSIC WITH WIN

LEBANON, Mo. — Joplin used a stingy defensive effort early to build a double-digit cushion and held off Troy for a 53-49 win to kick off the Lebanon I44 Lady’s Classic basketball tournament on Thursday.

Joplin (8-8) outscored Troy 17-2 in the first quarter to build an early advantage. The Eagles led by 12 points to start the fourth quarter and the Trojans made a run at the lead by outscoring Joplin 18-10 over the final eight minutes. JHS held on down the stretch.

“We got off to a tremendous start tonight,” Joplin coach Luke Floyd said to SoMo Sports. “Our defense was outstanding and we were able to get out to an early lead. Troy made some great adjustments and really turned up the pressure in the second half. To our girls’ credit, we were able to weather the storm and hang on for the win. I’m extremely proud of the girls for learning from the Webb City and Branson games and finishing the job.”

Brooke Nice and Brynn Driver each had 14 points to lead the Eagles in scoring. Nice had two 3-pointers. Ella Hafer closed with 13 points, while Emma Floyd added eight in the win.

Alyssa Schulte finished with 15 to lead Troy in scoring, while Maggie Illig and Ava Meyers each closed with 11 points in the loss.

Joplin plays the winner of Richland and Lee’s Summit West at 9 p.m. on Friday.

 

CARTHAGE GIRLS RALLY PAST SENECA

SENECA, Mo. — Carthage trailed Seneca 35-30 to start the second half before the Tigers rallied in the third quarter to take back the lead before pulling away down the stretch for a 69-54 win on Thursday.

Carthage (9-10) outscored Seneca 14-8 to take a one-point advantage into the final eight minutes. The Tigers won the fourth quarter 25-11.

 “It was a great second half by our team tonight,” Carthage coach Scott Moore said to SoMo Sports. “We locked down defensively and really put the clamps on their offense. That triggered our transition offense and we took control of the game with a 20-point separation over the final 16 minutes.”

Lauren Choate had five 3-pointers and finished with 21 points in the win for Carthage. Kianna Yates added 15 points and Landry Cochran finished with 10.

“Lauren Choate knocked down several big 3s tonight and forced them to change their defensive game plan,” Moore added. “Kianna Yates made several great decisions in the open court and found her teammates in scoring situations.”

Aliya Grotjohn poured in a game-high 30 points for Seneca. Hazley Grotjohn added 10 points for the Indians. 

Carthage hosts Joplin on Tuesday. Seneca (12-5) hosts its annual tournament next week. 

 

GOLDEN CITY BOYS 64, THOMAS JEFFERSON 50

Golden City scored the first 13 points of the night and never looked back en route to a 64-50 win at Thomas Jefferson on Thursday night.

Capitalizing on Thomas Jefferson’s early turnovers, the Eagles led 26-9 at the end of the first quarter and the visitors held a 44-28 halftime lead.

The Cavaliers kept battling and trimmed their deficit to 12 a couple of times in the second half.

“I was proud of the fight our kids showed,” Thomas Jefferson coach Chris Myers told SoMo Sports. “After a slow start like that, it would have been real easy to roll over.  Our kids didn’t do that though, they battled hard to keep the game competitive. With several players out again tonight, several guys stepped up and showed a lot of heart.  We are going to be a better team down the stretch because of the experience several guys have gained these past couple of weeks.”

Jay Ball scored 20 points and pulled down 21 rebounds. The 6-6 Ball added three blocked shots.

Drew Goodhope contributed 18 points, while Jake Jarrett had six points and four boards. Elias Rincker handed out five assists, while Kaushal Parimi had four points and three steals for the Cavaliers (13-4).

Josh Reeves scored 21 points and hit five treys for Golden City. Reeves reached 1,000 career points in his team’s 64-39 win over Exeter on Tuesday.

Also for the Eagles (13-7), Colby Nelson scored 16 and Elijah Pettengill had 12. 

Golden City is at Bronaugh on Tuesday. Thomas Jefferson will compete at next week’s McAuley Warrior Classic. 

 

GOLDEN CITY GIRLS 52, THOMAS JEFFERSON 28

Golden City pulled away after the first quarter. The Cavaliers led 11-10 at the end of the opening period, but the Eagles held a 26-16 lead by intermission.

Golden City’s advantage was 38-19 by the end of the third quarter.

Gabbi Hiebert and Alivia Beard scored nine points apiece for Thomas Jefferson, while Lannah Grigg added eight and Sarah Mueller added two.

Brooke Beerly scored 19 points for Golden City.

The Cavaliers meet College Heights on Monday at McAuley’s Warrior Classic. 

 

MCAULEY CATHOLIC BOYS 52, JASPER 28

McAuley Catholic built a 14-point lead by intermission en route to a 52-28 win over Jasper on Thursday night.

The Warriors improved to 4-14 on the season.

Jeffery Horinek scored 11 points for McAuley, while Jacob Bracich added nine. 

Collin Furr scored 12 points for Jasper.

McAuley led 12-8 at the end of the first quarter and the Warriors were up 29-15 at halftime.

Up 41-24 at the end of the third period, McAuley outscored Jasper 11-4 in the fourth quarter for the final margin.

McAuley hosts Exeter for homecoming on Friday night. Warriors coach Tony Witt noted the school will be honoring its 1980-81 team that advanced to the state final four. 

 

MARSHFIELD GIRLS 39, MOUNT VERNON 26

Marshfield led 12-5 right away and later used a 14-7 third period to pull away.

The Mountaineers fell to 8-8. 

Cheyenne Bieber and Jolie Prescott scored seven points apiece for Mount Vernon.

Abby McBride led Marshfield with 17 points, while Lauren Leubert had 13.

Mount Vernon hosts Rogersville on Monday. 

 

EAST NEWTON GIRLS 44, CASSVILLE 31

Kylee Cole scored 16 points to lead the Patriots, while Makenna Brasier had 11 and Shaw Coburn added eight.

GIRLS SWIMMING: Joplin takes second at home invite

Posted on by Jason Peake

 

The host Eagles took second place at the Joplin girls swimming invitational on Thursday at the Missouri Southern aquatic center.

Lebanon took first in the team standings. 

Marshfield, Seymour, Hillcrest, Nevada, Lamar, and Lebanon were among the competing teams.  

“This team has overcome many struggles this season with injuries and illnesses,” Joplin coach Juliana Hughes said. “However, they still made state- consideration times in all three relays early in the season and have dropped time in individual events tonight. Overall, this season has been my most successful year with the team.” 

Joplin’s 400-yard freestyle relay team of Allie Lawrence, Sophia Schwartz, Lily Rakes and Emma Langer took first. 

With the same girls swimming, Joplin’s 200 medley relay and 200 freestyle relays both finished second.

In individual events, Lawrence took first place in the 100 butterfly and Schwartz was third, while Rakes placed second in the 400 freestyle. 

Langer took second and Taegen Smith was fourth in the 100 breaststroke, while Brooklyn Hiller and Izzy Zamanzadeh finished fifth and sixth, respectively, in the 200 freestyle.  

In the 200 IM, Mairi Beranek placed fourth and Smith fifth. Lanee Goodwin finished sixth in the 50 freestyle.  

Hughes noted many other Joplin swimmers scored for the team by placing in the top 16 in each event. 

Joplin competes at the Southwest Missouri Championships next weekend in Springfield.

BOYS HOOPS: Carthage earns hard-fought win over Nevada; Tigers have doubled last year’s win total

Posted on by Jason Peake

 

CARTHAGE, Mo. — The Carthage Tigers recorded their 15th win of the season on Thursday night.

The Nevada Tigers definitely made them earn it. 

Carthage scored 13 of the final 16 points of the night to secure a hard-fought 66-50 victory over Nevada in a non-conference boys basketball clash. 

The hosts were clinging to a six-point cushion with just over three minutes to play when they finished strong with a game-ending 13-3 surge.

“I told our guys in a timeout in the fourth quarter, ‘Not a lot is going our way, but we’re going to grind this one out,'” Carthage coach Nathan Morris said. “We were able to speed them up a little bit and get some turnovers late in the game. We need to build on that finish. We’re going to learn lessons from this game.” 

Nevada coach Shaun Gray looked on the bright side after the loss.

“I’m really proud of our effort,” Gray said. “Anyone that watched this game knows the final margin wasn’t anywhere near what type of game it was. It was a two-possession game, and with time winding down we felt like we had to extend our defense. Carthage did a good job of making us pay. Coach Morris has done a great job with them. Carthage is a heck of a ballclub and we knew they’d be hard to beat tonight. I thought we gave ourselves a pretty good chance.” 

Receiving votes in the Missouri Basketball Coaches Association’s Class 6 poll, Carthage hiked its record to 15-3. 

Carthage had seven wins all of last season. With that, and with more than a month of the season still remaining, the Tigers have already more than doubled last year’s win total.

“That’s something we just talked about,” Morris said. “As ugly as this game was, we can’t be upset. We’ve got 15 wins. These guys know what we went through last year. We’re getting ready for the Tuesday-Friday stretch of the COC. Some teams succeed and some teams fall off. I think this group is up for the test and I think they’re ready to compete.” 

Four players scored in double figures for Carthage. Senior guard Joel Pugh led the way with 22 points, while junior guard Max Templeman added 12 points, sophomore guard Justin Ray had 11 and junior forward Tyler Willis contributed 10. 

Nevada (4-15) received 15 points from sophomore Brice Budd and 11 from senior Jerimia Collins. Evan Rea added nine points for Nevada, while Cade Beshore had eight. 

There were six ties in the first quarter. A trey from Pugh gave the hosts a 17-14 lead, but Nevada received two hoops inside from Collins and the visitors led 18-17 at the end of the opening frame. 

Carthage switched from man defense to a 2-3 zone in the second period, and it held the visiting Tigers to just two points in eight minutes.

“They were getting downhill and driving the ball against us in the first quarter,” Morris said. “We went to a zone and our kids did a good job of rebounding the ball when they missed some shots.”

Carthage, which battled early foul trouble, outscored Nevada 11-2 in the game-changing second quarter. 

“They did a good job of switching defenses and it took us a while to adjust,” Gray noted. “We got some good looks, but we couldn’t get anything to fall. They kept us off-balance.”

The third period was nearly even, as Carthage outscored Nevada 17-15 for a 45-35 lead.

Hoops from Pugh and Ray gave Carthage a double-digit cushion early in the final frame, but the visiting Tigers simply wouldn’t go away. 

Leo Gayman, Jack Cheaney and Budd all had buckets for Nevada, trimming Carthage’s lead to 53-47 with 3:15 left.

That’s when the host Tigers put the game away with one final spurt.

Caden Kabance made two free throws, Willis had two hoops in the paint off nice assists from Ray before Pugh and Willis made free throws to cap a 9-0 run. 

Budd knocked down a 3-pointer for Nevada, but Clay Kinder hit two foul shots and the 6-foot Ray threw down a one-handed dunk in transition for a final exclamation point.

Both coaches noted they can take positives away from Thursday’s clash. 

“I think early on in the game we allowed Nevada to play much harder than we did,” Morris said. “Really for the whole game they played harder than our guys. I wasn’t happy with how we played early in the game, but I thought we played much harder in the second half.” 

“We have absolutely made progress,” Gray said. “We won two of four games last week. We feel like we’re making good strides. We had a rough start to the season. We made improvements over the Christmas break and we feel like we took another step forward in January. We just have to keep on that upward trajectory.” 

 

WHAT’S NEXT?

Carthage hosts Joplin on Tuesday night in COC action. Nevada hosts Monett on Tuesday in Big 8 play. 

 

BOYS HOOPS: Joplin bounces back with comfortable win over East Newton

Posted on by Lucas Davis

After dropping three of its last four contests, including a lopsided home loss to Kickapoo on Tuesday, Joplin got back to playing a brand of basketball it is more familiar with on the way to a 70-42 win over East Newton on Thursday inside Kaminsky Gymnasium. 

Joplin’s All Wright attacks the basket in the Eagles’ win over East Newton on Thursday. Photo by Shawn Fowler.

While the offense was busy putting up points in transition, Joplin built a 24-10 lead by the end of the first quarter and pushed it to more than 20 by the intermission thanks to a stringent effort on the defensive end. The Eagles didn’t slow down in the second half, building a 27-point lead in the third quarter and putting it in cruise control down the stretch in the fourth quarter.

“Tuesday’s game was hard to take,” Joplin coach Bronson Schaake said. “I wanted to see how they’d bounce back. … We showed spurts tonight of really good basketball, which I thought would happen. We kind of got sloppy here and there, but (their) play showed me that they really want to do this. We can enjoy this win, then we have to get ready for Carthage next week.”
The win moves Joplin to a 13-5 record, with the Eagles traveling to Carthage on Feb. 1 to get back into Central Ozark Conference play. East Newton falls to 12-8 and hosts Cassville on Feb. 1. 

SCORING LEADERS

Joplin finished with three players in double-figure scoring, led by All Wright’s game-high 18 points. LT Atherton added 12 and Brantley Morris finished with 10. Whit Hafer finished with eight points, while Always Wright finished with seven. Terrance Gibson closed with six points.
Gabe Bergen led East Newton in scoring with 17 points. Kelton Sorrell finished with five points.

GAME ACTION

Joplin wasted little time taking control of the game, scoring the first nine points of the contest and ultimately started the opening quarter on a 15-2 run. Atherton accounted for six on the points, while All Wright converted from the perimeter in the early onset to highlight the run.

“Right now, my vision for the program is to be a team that presses to get up and go,” Schaake said about the early surge. “We can do it in moments, so I said to them, ‘We might as well try it now and continue to do it going forward.’ I thought it got us energy and bouncing around more. I kind of wish we had finished better—we should have had a few more buckets—but I will take it.”

Joplin’s Brantley Morris knocks down a perimeter jumper in the Eagles’ win over East Newton on Thursday. Photo by Shawn Fowler.

The Eagles pushed the first-quarter lead to 24-6 on a Junior Gilbert 3-pointer before consecutive East Newton scores from Bergen to close out the quarter trimmed Joplin’s lead to 24-10 to start the second period.

After both teams traded buckets early in the second period, Joplin scored nine straight points to push its lead to 23 points, 35-12, near the two-minute mark. Hafer started things off with a baseline dunk and a bucket on the inside before a driving score by Always Wright off a turnover. Morris knocked down a 3-pointer to close the run.

“We have to sustain that (defensive effort longer),” Schaake said. “In basketball, when you get a big enough lead, you start picking up some bad habits. In that stretch, that was really good defense.”

The Eagles ultimately took a 38-16 lead into the intermission after Always Wright buried an NBA-range 3-pointer from the wing at the sound of the horn.

Robert McFarland and Bergen scored out of the break to trim East Newton’s deficit to 18, but Joplin used a 12-3 run to push the lead to 27 with 2:30 left in the third period. 

All Wright had a score off the drive and a 3-point from the wing off an East Newton turnover to start the surge. Atherton added four points and Morris converted from the perimeter to make the score 52-25.

The Eagles cruised to the finish line.

Joplin’s LT Atherton shoots from mid-range in the Eagles’ win over East Newton on Thursday. Photo by Shawn Fowler.

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