Luke Floyd is 1-0 as Joplin’s girls basketball coach.
Joplin defeated Cassville 36-30 on Friday night in the season opener that was also Floyd’s debut as the program’s head coach.
“The girls played extremely hard tonight,” Floyd told SoMo Sports. “This was a grind of a game and the girls had to fight every possession on both ends of the floor. Cassville is a well coached, physical team that had a definite size advantage on us, but our girls gave everything they had. We were balanced scoring and everyone played their role perfectly.”
Joplin was led by Brooke Nice’s 10 points. Nice hit a pair of 3-pointers. Brynn Driver added nine points, Emma Floyd scored eight and Isabella Yust had seven. Serafina Auberry’s two points rounded out the scoring for the Eagles, who led 16-15 at halftime.
Joplin led 23-20 entering the fourth quarter. The Eagles outscored the Wildcats 13-10 in the final frame to secure the win.
Cassville received 11 points from Sharayah Seymour and nine from Kyren Postlewait.
Joplin hosts East Newton at 7 on Monday night.
JV WINS
Joplin’s JV girls defeated Cassville 29-23.
“The JV team showed a lot of heart and poise tonight,” Eagles coach Ashley Ohlman said. “With many of the girls playing their first high school basketball game, it was great to see them finish the game strong and come away with the win.”
Scarlett Floyd scored nine points to lead Joplin, while Bailey Ledford and Kiki Thom added six points apiece.
