CARL JUNCTION, Mo. — The Carl Junction Bulldogs, top-ranked in Class 5, improved to 21-1 overall and 5-0 in Central Ozark Conference play with their 71-48 win over their county and conference rival Carthage on Tuesday night.
Carl Junction scored 10 of the game’s first 12 points, never trailed, and the Bulldogs received a combined 51 points from the dynamic duo of senior Destiny Buerge and junior Kylie Scott.
Buerge scored 21 of her game-high 28 points in the second half and Scott scored the game’s first seven points on her way to 23 for the evening.
Senior guard Klohe Burk knocked down four 3-point shots for her 12 points and proved to be a legitimate third scoring option.
“Those two can score in bunches,” Carl Junction coach Brad Shorter said of Buerge and Scott. “They’re outstanding players. Kylie started off … just boom boom boom … and I called an early 30-second timeout, ‘Girls, Kylie scored the first seven points, and she hasn’t touched it (since). We keep settling for deep threes and we need to continue to pound it inside.’
“I was really frustrated with how long it took us to take what we were telling them as coaches and apply it to the game. We had good effort at times, we just need to continue to fight and keep working on getting better.”
Carthage punched away in the second and third quarters after finding a 20-8 deficit at the end of the first eight minutes.
The Tigers played the Bulldogs to a 10-9 advantage in the second and a 21-17 disadvantage in the third.
Carl Junction entered the fourth ahead 50-35 and extended the lead to 23 points on four different occasions, including what turned out to be the final score.
“Two big keys I thought tonight were our poor shooting and then (Kylie) Scott owned us inside,” Carthage coach Scott Moore said. “In the second half, they picked us up with more pressure. We didn’t attack the basket as well. Scott erases every attempt down there and then if we missed our floater, she’s going to get the rebound and run down to the other end.”
“I don’t think our kids realized how quick they were until gametime,” Shorter said. “You feel like you’ve got a chance to put them away and they just hang around, they’re always there. We had opportunities in the middle of the first half to stretch it a little bit and just didn’t do it. We settled for some shots that we could have got it inside, whether it’s with Kylie or Dezi or Destiny. We’ll go back to the drawing board and keep on working at it and see if we can get a little bit better for Thursday.”
Dezi Williams and Anna Burch rounded out Carl Junction’s scoring with six and two points, respectively, in the Bulldogs’ 16th straight win overall.
Carl Junction hosts Branson on Thursday.
Lauren Choate and Maggie Boyd combined for six of Carthage’s nine 3-point baskets Tuesday and the sophomore sharpshooters finished with 18 and 11 points, respectively.
Jaidyn Brunnert finished with seven points, Ashlyn Brust added five, Kianna Yates had three, and Zye Clark and Lexa Youngblood each contributed two points.
The Tigers (9-12 overall, 1-4 COC) wrap up the most brutal five-game portion of their schedule on Thursday at home against conference and district rival Nixa.
“Our girls are competitive,” Moore said. “We dug a hole to start off right away, but we rushed back and got it close again. Our girls don’t give up. We play hard. We fight. Carl Junction isn’t that much better than us. They just shot better than us tonight. Again, when we figure out why we can’t shoot the ball well enough and start scoring the ball at will like other teams do against us, we can be a very explosive ballclub. But we’re still waiting for that to happen, so I’m hoping that happens Thursday against Nixa.”
Carthage boys 82, Carl Junction 52
The Carthage Tigers found their shooting touch early on Tuesday against their county and conference rival, scoring 10 of the game’s first 12 points and never trailing during a 30-point victory in which the Tigers put up 41 points in each half with all nine of their made trifectas in the first half and then a series of layups, interior shots and free throws in the second half.
“We came out and executed really well early,” Carthage coach Nathan Morris said. “I felt like Britt (Coy) and Max (Templeman) got us off to a hot start, and we forced CJ into something they don’t normally do. They had to come and switch out of their zone to man, and that’s something our kids relished. When they went to man, we were able to get some transition buckets and I thought in the second half we shared the ball in the halfcourt in our motion offense better than we have all year.”
Templeman scored a game-high 26 points with 18 of them in the first half, Clay Kinder finished with 15 points, Britt Coy added 14 points, and Justin Ray provided the Tigers with a fourth scorer in double-digits with 13 points.
Kruz Castor added six points, Ben Nicholas four points, and Dylan Pugh and Trent Yates two points each.
Carthage improved to 12-9 overall and 2-3 COC entering Friday’s home game against conference and district rival Nixa, a team currently 21-0 overall after Tuesday’s 62-58 win over Republic.
“For years, Nixa has been the top dog or one of the top two dogs in the conference,” Morris said. “We really have played them well all four years that I’ve been here. Our kids have bought into (Nixa) is a phenomenal basketball program, but we’ve got some pretty good kids as well. It should be a good crowd Friday with Homecoming and they’re coming off a high-intensity game (Tuesday) with Republic for the No. 1 team in the conference, so I think our kids will be ready to face them on Friday.”
Carl Junction dropped to 7-15 overall and 0-5 COC, and the Bulldogs return home Friday to welcome conference opponent Branson.
