Month: December 2022

NEOSHO, Mo. — Neosho coach Zane Culp laid it out plain and simple for the Wildcats after their disappointing 77-49 loss Thursday against Crooked Oak (Okla.) in the semifinals of the 68th annual Neosho Holiday Classic.

During his postgame interview, Culp said that he told his players they can either lay down or show up at noon on Friday and avenge themselves.

The Wildcats definitely showed up at noon on Friday and they avenged themselves with a 54-41 win over Monett for third place in the Black Division of their home tournament.

Monett led 2-0 and 4-2 early on, but Neosho went on an astonishing 21-0 scoring run on the way to a 23-7 lead after one quarter.

“The guys came out with a lot of energy,” Culp said. “We talked about how we felt we played very below our standards defensively (Thursday). We just talked about every bucket they take better be the hardest bucket they’ve ever taken in their lives. They kind of clung to that and did a good job.”

Senior bench contributor Michael Day scored all eight of his points and fellow senior Isaiah Green added five more during that 21-0 stretch.

The Wildcats made 10 out of 13 shots in the first eight minutes and needless to say, they could not keep that nearly 77 percent shooting clip for the entire game.

Neosho finished 21-45 overall (46.7 percent) from the floor in the contest, a number hurt by a 2-13 performance (15.4 percent) from 3-point range.

The Wildcats owned a 36-16 advantage inside the paint, 22-1 in points off turnovers, 14-0 off the fast break, and 8-0 in bench points.

“A lot of those turnovers, I think maybe one was off a press, the rest were just digging in and playing really good half-court defense,” Culp said. “Kael Smith really set the tone early. He poked away a couple balls, blocked a shot, and dove on the floor. He’s one of our best players. He’s one of our leaders, and to see him set the tone right off the bat like ‘This is what we’re doing today,’ that was really good to see.”

All-tournament selection Green recorded his second double-double of the tournament and he accomplished this one with 15 points and 10 assists to go alongside his 13 points and 11 rebounds Wednesday against Cassville.

Green needed three rebounds Friday for a triple-double and he added three steals and one blocked shot in 32 minutes of play.

Slam dunk competition winner Carter Baslee joined his fellow senior in double-double territory with 12 points and 10 rebounds.

Smith finished with 11 points and six rebounds, while Brock Franklin and Carter Fenske each scored four points.

Monett cut Neosho’s lead down to 47-41 with 2:27 remaining, but the Wildcats buckled down both defensively and offensively and scored the game’s final seven points.

Blaine Salsman and Jason Garner led Monett with 16 and 11 points, respectively.

Neosho improved to 8-2 overall and the Wildcats are back in action Jan. 3 against their Newton County rival East Newton.

“The boys had a mission to win the finals so it’s kind of like a shrugged win,” Culp said, “but you take every win you can get and I’m proud of them for responding today. It could have been really easy after last night and not as big a crowd (Friday) to lay down, but I thought this was probably the hardest they’ve played in a while. To turn around and do that in a noon game makes me really proud of them.”

68th annual Neosho Holiday Classic

Friday’s scores

Gold Title Game: Cypress Falls (Texas) 44, Atascocita (Texas) 30

Gold Third Place: Bentonville (Ark.) 72, Van Buren (Ark.) 52

Gold Fifth Place: Morrilton (Ark.) 49, Maumelle (Ark.) 38

Gold Seventh Place: St. Joseph Lafayette 98, Memphis Mitchell (Tenn.) 72

Black Title Game: Crooked Oak (Okla.) 64, Huntsville (Ark.) 57

Black Third Place: Neosho 54, Monett 41

Black Fifth Place: Sapulpa (Okla.) 55, Cassville 42

Black Seventh Place: McDonald County 54, East Newton 35

2022 Black Bracket All Tournament Team

Tymier Adkins-Freeman – Crooked Oak (MVP)

Mason Davidson – Huntsville 

Jason Garner – Monett 

Isaiah Green – Neosho 

Kylen Edwards – Sapulpa 

Troy Lambert – Huntsville 

Daevian Hill – Crooked Oak 

Cross Dowd – McDonald County

2022 Gold Bracket All Tournament Team  

Joseph Tuggler – Cypress Falls (MVP)

Chase Ashby – Atascocita 

JaCorey Mosley – Morrilton 

Jaxon Cazzell – Van Buren 

Camden Bennett – St. Joe Lafayette 

Markalon Rochell – Maumelle 

Jaylen Lee – Bentonville 

Reid Meekins – Cypress Falls

Bill Ball Sportsmanship Award: Morrilton

NEOSHO, Mo. — Six made field goals.

Seven made free throws.

A single point in the first quarter and four at halftime, all on free throws.

The first 18 minutes of the game before a made field goal and the final stat line of 19 points and 18 turnovers.

Those are the main numbers that highlight tournament host Neosho’s often grisly struggle Friday during a 51-19 loss against defending girls champion Fort Smith Northside (Ark.) in the championship game of the Neosho Holiday Classic played at Neosho High School.

“We did not come out the way that we wanted to come out tonight,” Neosho coach Daniel Durst said. “I’m not sure what it was, but we just didn’t show up to start with and I got them to start back up after halftime, but we dug ourselves a really big hole and it’s hard to dig yourself out of that.

“That Northside team is really tough. We knew that coming in. They’re a great basketball team. I told the girls in our walk-through this morning that we need to play as hard as we can to put ourselves in a position to win at the end of the game. We stressed that if we were going to win this game it would be a close one until the end. Unfortunately, we didn’t show up ready to do that today.”

Looking on the bright side of the Wildcats’ performance in their home tournament, though, Neosho won games against Van Buren (Ark.) and Memphis Whitehaven (Tenn.), erased an 11-point deficit with the final 15 points in the last three minutes against Van Buren and scored the first nine points in their win against Whitehaven, senior Karlee Ellick and sophomore Beclynn Garrett each received all-tournament recognition, and senior Reagan McInturff repeated as the champion of the 3-point shooting competition.

McInturff also made the go-ahead 3-point basket in the thrilling win Wednesday against Van Buren.

“I think overall tournament play, we played well,” Durst said. “With the exception of tonight, we’re getting better. Every game, we take something away and learn from it, and we’re better the next time. Even from this loss tonight, it’s tough but we’ve learned something, and it will then make us better in the future.”

In the loss Friday, Ellick, Garrett, and her older sister Maelynn Garrett each led Neosho with four points, Meredith Baldwin and Courtney Thomason each added two, and McInturff, Autumn Kinnaird, and Madison Olson each made a free throw to round out the scoring.

Karys Washington scored a game-high 26 points for Northside (10-2) and she also tallied nine rebounds, two assists, one blocked shot, and one steal.

Erianna Gooden added nine points for the Grizzlies, a perennial power in Arkansas Class 6A girls basketball.

Northside outscored Neosho 32-12 in the paint, 23-5 off turnovers, and 20-3 in second-chance points, as well as owning a 37-23 rebounding edge.

Neosho dropped to 7-5 overall and the Wildcats return to action Jan. 9 with their Central Ozark Conference opener on the road against Webb City (6-4).

At this point in the season last year, Neosho was 5-7 overall.

68th annual Neosho Holiday Classic

Friday’s scores

Title game: Fort Smith Northside (Ark.) 51, Neosho 19

Third place: Memphis Whitehaven (Tenn.) 47, Van Buren (Ark.) 44 (OT)

Fifth place: St. Joseph Lafayette 56, Stoutland 44

2022 Girls Division All Tournament Team

Karys Washington – Northside  (MVP)

Beclynn Garrett – Neosho 

Karlee Ellick – Neosho 

Jeureni Wright – Whitehaven 

Arianna Gooden – Northside 

Talicia Byrd – Lafayette

Bill Ball Legacy of Sportsmanship Award: Stoutland

NEOSHO, Mo. — The Neosho girls basketball team is back in the championship game of their home tournament for the first time since 2016 after their 58-44 win over Memphis Whitehaven (Tenn.) on Thursday at Neosho Junior High.

Neosho scored the game’s first nine points, Whitehaven never led and it was only a tie game for three seconds total, and Whitehaven could not get better than a nine-point deficit (50-41, 52-43) in the fourth quarter.

Neosho improved to 7-4 overall and the Wildcats draw the formidable Fort Smith Northside Grizzlies, defending tournament champions, at 3:30 p.m. on Friday at Neosho High School.

“I am very, very pleased,” Neosho coach Daniel Durst said. “We did falter a bit in the third, which is common for us, but I say that we held it together better than normal and that served us well in the fourth quarter. We came back alive and finished it off.”

The Wildcats picked up Thursday right where they left off from Wednesday’s comeback 52-48 win over Van Buren (Ark), when they erased an 11-point deficit with the game’s final 15 points in the final three minutes.

“That did roll over for us and the girls are just starting to build more and more confidence as we go,” Durst said. “It’s translating to better and better play and more wins. This (Whitehaven) was a great test for us. I’m super proud of them.”

The Wildcats maintained two advantages that fed into their 14-point win: a 34-14 advantage in points in the paint and a 21-6 advantage in made free throws.

“We actually had a conversation at our walk-through about pounding the ball inside,” Durst said. “I thought we really had an advantage there, and I said let’s get to the free throw line. Score when the clock’s stopped.”

Senior post Karlee Ellick, fellow senior Reagan McInturff, and sophomore guard Beclynn Garrett combined for 49 points Thursday.

Ellick, who proved responsible for the majority of those points in the paint, finished with a game-high 24 points and she had eight rebounds, three assists, and three blocks.

McInturff added 13 points, eight rebounds, and two blocks.

Garrett tallied 12 points, seven rebounds, and one assist in 31 minutes.

Ellick, McInturff, and Garrett alone shot a combined 21-24 from the stripe (87.5 percent) with each player missing only a single free throw (Garrett 8-9, McInturff 7-8, Ellick 6-7).

The Wildcats set an early tone by going to the line first only five seconds in and they already had six free throw attempts within the first 48 seconds of the game.

Maelynn Garrett finished with five points, four rebounds, three assists, and two steals, while fellow senior Raine Harris added four points, three rebounds, two assists, and one steal.

Jeurnei Wright led Whitehaven (8-2) with 15 points, 14 of which she had as the Tigers outscored Neosho 30-25 in the second half.

In order to earn their first Neosho Holiday Classic title since 2014, the Wildcats will have to go through one of the absolute powerhouse Arkansas girls basketball programs in Fort Smith Northside, who defeated St. Joseph Lafayette 58-32 on Thursday and Stoutland 57-15 on Wednesday in their first two Holiday Classic games.

“Very, very excited,” Durst said. “It’s been since 2016 these girls have done that. We’re pumped and ready to go.

“They’re (Northside) going to be a tough, tough team to beat. We can do it, but we’re going to have to play really hard. I’m hoping that the energy from this game leaks over and gets us started tomorrow like it did today.”

Crooked Oak (Okla.) boys 77, Neosho 49

The host Wildcats will not repeat as Black Division champions, as they endured a rough 28-point semifinal loss on Thursday with the Ruf-Nex from Oklahoma City outscoring Neosho 38-13 in the first and fourth quarters, including 19-5 in the first.

Neosho led for 61 seconds, and the game was tied for 51 seconds.

Crooked Oak led for just over 30 minutes.

Cranking up the defensive pressure in the third quarter, Neosho made it a 49-39 game before Crooked Oak closed out the quarter with 9 of the final 11 points to stretch the lead to 58-41 entering the fourth.

“When you’re down that much and you have to fight that hard to get back, you just run out of gas,” Neosho coach Zane Culp said. “I felt like energy wise, (Carter) Baslee, Isaiah Green, and Brock (Franklin) brought it. They had to play every minute hard, and they ran out of gas.”

Neosho (7-2 overall) will play for third against Monett at noon Friday at Neosho High School.

“That’s what I told them,” Culp said. “You have an option: You can lay down or you can show up tomorrow at noon and avenge yourself. There’s not really any other option.”

Neosho defeated Monett 48-33 back on Dec. 13.

On Thursday, Green finished with 13 points, five rebounds, four assists, and three steals. Carter Fenske had 12 points, Kael Smith 11 points and five rebounds, and Baslee added eight points, four rebounds, and two blocks.

Tymie Adkins-Freeman, Elijah Garcia, and Daevion Hill combined for 66 of Crooked Oak’s 77 points — Adkins-Freeman a game-high 24 points behind 12 made free throws, Hill 22 points along with 13 rebounds and three blocks, and Garcia 20 points sparked by six trifectas.

The Ruf-Nex are ranked fifth in Oklahoma Class 3 by the Oklahoma Secondary School Activities Association (OSSAA).

68th annual Neosho Holiday Classic

Thursday’s scores

Maumelle (Ark.) 72, Memphis Mitchell (Tenn.) 58

Sapulpa (Okla.) 72, McDonald County 66

Morrilton (Ark.) 66, St. Joseph Lafayette 42

Huntsville (Ark.) 44, Monett 41

Cassville 55, East Newton 52 (OT)

Fort Smith Northside (Ark.) girls 58, Lafayette 32

Cypress Falls (Texas) 45, Bentonville (Ark.) 36

Neosho girls 58, Memphis Whitehaven (Tenn.) 44

Crooked Oak (Okla.) 77, Neosho 49

Van Buren (Ark.) girls 40, Stoutland 24

Atascocita (Texas) 60, Van Buren (Ark.) 55

Friday’s games

at Neosho High School

Sapulpa vs. Cassville, 9 a.m.

Morrilton (Ark.) vs. Maumelle (Ark.), 10:30 a.m.

Neosho vs. Monett, Noon

Van Buren (Ark.) vs. Bentonville (Ark.), 1:30 p.m.

Neosho girls vs. Fort Smith Northside (Ark.), 3:30 p.m.

Huntsville (Ark.) vs. Crooked Oak (Okla.), 5 p.m.

Atascocita (Texas) vs. Cypress Falls (Texas), 6:30 p.m.

at Neosho Junior High

McDonald County vs. East Newton, 9 a.m.

Lafayette vs. Memphis Mitchell (Tenn.), 10:30 a.m.

Lafayette girls vs. Stoutland, Noon

Van Buren (Ark.) girls vs. Memphis Whitehaven (Tenn.), 1:30 p.m.