NEOSHO, Mo. — The Carthage Tigers closed out Central Ozark Conference play with a 65-44 win on Monday over the host Neosho Wildcats.
Carthage’s perimeter firepower prevailed against Neosho’s dominant post presence of senior forward Karlee Ellick.
“It was like a clash of opposites,” Carthage coach Scott Moore said. “We’re definitely more talented at the guard position. They’re more talented at the post position. I thought our guards did a great job of dominating the game on both ends.
“I know their post got a bunch of baskets, obviously, but we were trying to do our best to get ball pressure just so they couldn’t even pass her the ball because she gets it and scores pretty quick. It’s hard to double her, and they were very patient in getting it to her.
“I was very proud of my girls at both ends of the floor. I thought we controlled everything that we wanted to control, so it was a good all-around effort for us.”
Carthage scored the game’s opening four points and never trailed, but the conference and district rivals traded punches for most of the first quarter. Ellick opened the scoring in the second quarter for a 16-12 score, but the guests rattled off 11 straight points for their first double-digit lead at 27-12. Lauren Choate’s 3-pointer at the buzzer gave Carthage a 20-7 advantage in the quarter and a 36-17 halftime lead.
“Our shots didn’t fall right away, but in the second quarter, I thought our shots started to fall,” Moore said. “It was nice our three guards all got into double figures, which has been our goal all year. If we can get 15 points from each of them, that’s 45 and if we can get another 10-15 from everybody else, the first team to 60 wins a lot of games in our conference. I am proud that our girls 1-9 came out, worked hard, and got that win tonight.”
Kianna Yates sparked Carthage with a team-high 23 points and made four 3-point baskets, Maggie Boyd had 16 points and four trifectas, Choate netted 13 points and three treys, Landry Cochran and Lexa Youngblood contributed another 10 points with six and four, respectively, while Ashlyn Brust rounded out the scoring with three points.
The Tigers made 12 3-point field goals on the night and earned a 36-3 advantage on the scoreboard alone from their dominance from deep.
“Yeah, that’s probably one of our better shooting nights,” Moore said. “I know we had a couple games early where we hit double-digit threes, but those were against lesser opponents. I thought Neosho battled us for all 32 minutes and so it was a good victory for us tonight.”
Yates reached the 1,500-career point milestone in the second quarter Monday, and the game stopped for a brief recognition of her feat.
“Kianna scores her 1,500th career point, which is great because last year here she scored her 1,000th point against Neosho,” Moore said. “So, it’s a special treat for her to get both of those and now she’s chasing down the school’s scoring record.”
Carthage improved to 11-14 overall and the Tigers finished conference play with a 3-6 mark. The Tigers have their regular season finale Thursday on the road against Cassville and play their Class 6 District 5 quarterfinal game Mar. 2 against third-seeded Kickapoo in Nixa.
Yates needs 35 points to break the school’s scoring record.
Ellick finished with a game-high 31 points, including all 17 of the Wildcats’ points in the first half, while fellow seniors Raine Harris added eight points, Meredith Baldwin three, and Reagan McInturff two points on Neosho’s Senior Night.
Neosho fell to 10-14 overall and 1-6 COC, and the Wildcats finish up their regular season with conference road games Wednesday against Branson and Thursday against Nixa. The Wildcats and the Eagles then will turn around to play each other again on March 2 in the Class 6 District 5 quarterfinals in Nixa.
