SPRINGFIELD, Mo. — Despite a valiant comeback attempt, Carthage’s girls suffered a 58-46 loss to Cabot (Ark.) in the third-place game of the Pink & White Classic’s Pink Division on Thursday at Drury University’s O’Reilly Family Events Center.
The Tigers found themselves in an early hole, as the Panthers led 21-4. But Carthage won the second half 32-20, but the early deficit was too much to overcome.
“Dead legs dug us a hole to start the game, but these girls are fighters and came out on fire in the second half,” Carthage coach Scott Moore said. “We challenged them at halftime to come out, play hard and let it fly. And they did just that. We hit four 3-pointers in the third quarter and got right back into the game. Then we kept ramping it up and cut it all the way down to eight points in the fourth quarter.”
Cabot led 38-14 at halftime. Carthage outscored the Panthers 17-9 in the third period and 15-11 in the fourth quarter.
Junior guard Kianna Yates led Carthage with 21 points.
“Kianna Yates averaged 22 points per game for us this week against amazing competition,” Moore noted. “She’s such an exceptional player who always leads the charge for us and the rest of the team follows her energy and passion for the game.”
“However, we are more than just one player,” Moore added. “Lauren Choate, Maggie Boyd, Landry Cochran, Sophie Shannon, Daniela Marquez and Trisha Kanas gave us every ounce of energy they had. We press for 32 minutes and we need each of those girls to give their best effort for us to be successful. Because they did, we had an amazing run and they should be so proud of themselves.”
Lauren Choate contributed eight points, while Sophie Shannon added seven points.
Jenna Cook scored 17 points to lead Cabot.
Moore noted he was proud of his team’s 2-2 showing in the always-tough tournament.
“Nobody in this tournament has had to play four tough games like we just did,” Moore said. “I’m so incredibly proud of these kids for how hard they have played this week. In fact, the tournament committee awarded us the Sportsmanship Award for how hard we played. We impressed everyone in the arena with our brand of basketball over the course of the tourney. That’s the ‘Lady Tiger Way.'”
In addition to finishing fourth in its bracket, Carthage was the recipient of the sportsmanship award.
Carthage (5-6) hosts Strafford at 6 on Tuesday night. The Indians just won the White Division at the Pink & White tourney.
