SENECA, Mo. — Joplin’s girls basketball team grinded out a hard-fought 43-33 win over Monett in the fifth-place game of the Seneca Tournament on Saturday afternoon.
Clinging to a two-point lead at intermission, the Eagles outscored the Cubs 23-15 in the second half.
It may not have always been pretty, but the Eagles were able to end the tournament on a positive note.
“A win’s a win and we’ll take it,” Joplin coach Luke Floyd said. “In the second half, we played to our capabilities. I thought the girls did a better job of attacking in the second half and we did a much better job of moving our feet defensively. We were sluggish in the first half. It’s our third game in a row, but at the same time, we’re young so we should be able to handle that. Sometimes we have trouble being engaged from the get-go.”
The Eagles earned their seventh win of the season.
Sophomore guard Brynn Driver led Joplin with 12 points, while junior guard Brooke Nice added 11.
Sophomore guard Isabella Yust contributed eight points, while junior forward Emma Floyd had six. Nice and Yust hit two 3-pointers apiece.
Also for Joplin (7-12), freshman Bailey Ledford chipped in four points and senior Lily Pagan had two.
Kim Parris scored nine points for the Cubs, while Natalie Turner had eight.
The game was deadlocked at 10 at the end of the first quarter.
Monett led 18-14, but the Eagles scored six straight points to end the first half, as Nice recorded a hoop, Driver made one free throw before Yust buried a trey, giving Joplin a 20-18 halftime advantage.
The Eagles were up one late in the third period when Pagan made one foul shot and Driver scored on a drive through the lane, extending Joplin’s lead to 31-27 heading into the fourth quarter.
The Eagles would never relinquish their lead, as they outscored the Cubs 12-6 in the final frame.
Driver, Nice and Yust made field goals to push the advantage to 39-31 with just under two minutes to play.
Floyd noted his team played much better in the second half.
“Defensively, in the first half we put them on the free-throw line too much,” Floyd said. “Offensively, we settled for the 3 too much. But the girls made the adjustments we needed to make in the second half.”
Joplin returns to Central Ozark Conference play at Ozark on Monday.
AURORA 45, SENECA 36
A big second quarter propelled Aurora to the tourney championship.
The Houn’ Dawgs outscored Seneca 19-3 in the second period and then held off the Indians late in the 10th annual event’s title game.
Elizabeth Martin scored 27 points for Aurora.
Aliya Grotjohn, a junior who recently surpassed 1,000 career points, scored 26 of Seneca’s 36 points.
Makayla French and Grotjohn knocked down two treys apiece in the opening frame, and the Indians led 12-8.
But Aurora got going offensively in the second quarter while the Indians went cold from the field.
After the Houn’ Dawgs went on a 19-0 run, Grotjohn’s trey in the final minute of the first half accounted for Seneca’s only points of the frame and cut Aurora’s lead to 27-15 at the break.
Aurora led 32-17 when Grotjohn scored 11 straight points. Grotjohn’s sixth trey of the game trimmed Aurora’s lead to three, but the Houn’ Dawgs responded with seven straight points to seal the win.
MUSTANGS TAKE THIRD
In the tournament’s third-place game, McDonald County defeated Purdy 40-22.
The Mustangs led 20-9 at intermission and 30-17 at the end of the third quarter en route to victory.
Samara Smith scored 10 points for the Mustangs, while Carlee Cooper and Abby Wiseman added six points apiece.
Kinsley Mattingly scored six points for Purdy and Annabelle Bowman had five.
