CARTHAGE, Mo. — The Carthage girls basketball team opened Central Ozark Conference play with a dominant 63-33 victory over Joplin on Tuesday night.
The game was the polar opposite of the boys contest in the nightcap — Carthage never trailed, and Joplin managed only a pair of tie scores at 2-all and 5-all in the game’s first three minutes.
Carthage led 17-8 after one quarter, 32-13 at halftime, and 48-23 after three.
“I was really happy with our defensive intensity tonight,” Carthage coach Scott Moore said. “The girls were playing great on the ball and off the ball we rotated really well to limit Joplin’s scoring chances.
“Offensively, we made really smart decisions with the ball. We shot the open shots, we found the open teammate, and we attacked the basket when the path was clear. Those are all good signs of a maturing team, and that makes a coach smile watching from the sidelines.”
Carthage’s outstanding senior guard Kianna Yates led all scorers with 23 points, sophomore Maggie Boyd added 14 points with two of her highlights coming on 3-point baskets several feet behind the line, sophomore guards Lauren Choate and Ashlyn Brust each added seven points, sophomore Lexa Youngblood scored all six of her points in the second half, senior Landry Cochran had all of her four points in the first half, and sophomore Jaidyn Brunnert closed out the game’s scoring with her two points.
“Kianna took it aggressively to the basket and got buckets or got fouled most of the time,” Moore said. “Maggie drained four threes to punish them from the outside.
“Another mark of a maturing team is having five players score six or more points. That means we are getting good scoring from every position on the floor. That makes it hard to just focus on stopping one or two of our players.”
Carthage improves to 6-5 overall and 1-0 COC, and the Tigers return home soon for their next conference battle.
“We will have tougher task on Friday when Ozark comes to town, so we will get back onto the practice court (Wednesday) and get ourselves ready for another COC battle,” Moore said.
Bailey Ledford and Alissa Owens each led Joplin with seven points, Maria Laum had six, Serafina Auberry had four, Isabella Yust and Libby Munn each had three, Jill McDaniel added two, and Claire Jasper made one free throw for her lone point.
Joplin dropped to 2-9 overall and 0-1 COC, and the Eagles play their home conference opener Thursday against state-ranked Republic (12-2, 0-1).
