Despite taking a 56-18 loss on Saturday in the third-place game of the 26th annual Freeman Lady Eagle Classic at Kaminsky Gymnasium, the Joplin Eagles showed improvement from their 68-21 loss Friday against Farmington (Arkansas) and their season-opening 83-38 loss against Saturday’s opponent Kickapoo.
Joplin’s former rival in the Ozark Conference, Kickapoo scored the first 16 points of the game, blanked Joplin in the first quarter, went on a 17-0 run during the second and third quarters, and held a combined 32-4 advantage on the scoreboard from the first and third quarters.
“We counted at halftime, and I think we turned them (Kickapoo) over 13 at halftime,” Joplin coach Brad Cox said. “We were probably 7-10 second half, so we created 23 turnovers tonight. We understood that after losing Brynn (Driver), scoring is going to be an issue for us for a little while, but we have a plan in place to get that back. If we’re able to do that and limit some of our turnovers to where they get some offense and easy points, it’s a 10-point game.
“We definitely are trending in the right direction. Yesterday was our shock and awe at losing our leader (Driver), but today we were zoned in and played good defense and rebounded the ball well. I was very happy, and it was a lot better than the first time.”
During the second quarter, Joplin narrowed it to 22-10 behind a pair of 3-point baskets from Bailey Ledford and two points each from Isabella Yust and Alissa Owens.
Unfortunately, though, for the Eagles, they would never get any closer since Kickapoo scored the final nine of the first half and the first eight of the second half to go ahead 39-10.
Kickapoo put the game in running clock mode for the fourth with a 47-14 lead entering the final eight minutes.
Ledford led Joplin with seven points, Serafina Auberry added three, and Yust, Owens, Bailey Owens and Jill McDaniel each had two.
Miya Nieto and Allison Scott each paced Kickapoo with 12 points and Mikayla Smith had 10.
The Eagles came away from their home tournament with a quarterfinal win against Leavenworth (Kansas) and fourth place overall.
“Fourth place in a tournament like this with this caliber of teams, it’s great,” Cox said. “I feel like this year people are looking at us to be more down and I just feel like we’re trending in the right direction. We’ve battled adversity in this tournament and it’s only going to make us better and help us out at the end of the season when it really matters.”
Joplin, 2-5 overall, returns to action Friday at home against Lee’s Summit.
