Joplin and Carthage girls basketball each suffered losses on Friday in the consolation bracket of the Freeman Lady Eagle Classic basketball tournament.
The Eagles fell to Branson in the opening game of Day 2, while the Tigers were in a close game against Leavenworth before the Pioneers took the lead inside the final 90 seconds en route to the win. Both teams will meet up in the seventh-place game at 1 p.m.
BRANSON GIRLS 52, JOPLIN 19
Joplin struggled on the offensive end early, which allowed Branson to build a lead out of the gates that the Pirates held onto throughout en route to a win on the second day of the Freeman Lady Eagle Classic.
The Pirates took a 14-2 lead into the second quarter and pushed the advantage to more than 20 at the intermission. Branson held the pace through the second half.
“Branson is a great team,” Joplin coach Brad Cox said. “They have all five starters returning from last year’s team. That said, we have to find a way to score the basketball. I thought we played much better in the second half. Defensively, our goal was to keep them under 50—we are averaging 40 points allowed per game—but we have to figure out a way to score more than 40 points a game. That’s kind of how this whole thing works, scoring more than you give up.”
Joplin was limited to one field goal in the first quarter, allowing Branson to jump out to a 12-point, 14-2 advantage by the start of the second period. The Pirates got a pair of 3-pointers from senior Maci Rogers and two buckets on the drive by freshman Angel Craig to fuel the opening-quarter surge.
Branson pushed its lead to more than 20 points near the midway point of the second period after starting the quarter on a 12-3 run to make the score 26-4 with 4:32 left in the first half. Senior Rylie Hagston had five early points, including a 3-pointer, with senior Taylor Foster adding a pair of inside scores.
Back to back scores off the drive from Craig put the Pirates on top 34-8 with a minute left in the first half.
Sophomore Alissa Owens had six points in the quarter for the Eagles.
“One word comes to my mind when I think about Alissa—heart,” Cox said. “She plays with her heart on her sleeve and she plays hard every second of the game. She hardly ever comes out of the game, and she is someone I am looking forward to seeing take steps forward to help our scoring and kind of be that go-to player for us. Once she can do that, it is going to open up others on the perimeter for us to get some uncontested shots.”
The Pirates scored the first seven points of the second half to push the lead past 30 points. Foster started things with an inside score before Ellison Mehrhoff scored on the break, drew a foul and knocked down the and-1 free throw before a back-cut score from Hagston to make the score 42-10 with six minutes left in the third period.
Four straight points from Taylor pushed the Pirates’ lead to 46-14 before an old-fashioned three-point-play from Owens sent Joplin into the fourth trailing 46-17.
Branson held the pace in the fourth quarter to secure the win.
The Pirates finished with three players in double figures, with Foster’s 12 points leading the way. Mehrhoff and Hagston each finished with 10 in the win.
Owens finished with 11 points to lead Joplin, while junior forward Aiyana Kroll closed with four points.
Branson takes on Leavenworth in the fifth-place game at 2:30 p.m. on Saturday.
Joplin is in the seventh-place game against Carthage at 1 p.m. on Saturday.
LEAVENWORTH 33, CARTHAGE 28
In a game where the lead never grew beyond two possessions with scoring at a premium, Leavenworth found a dash of momentum inside the final minute of play to earn the win over Carthage in the second consolation game of the day.
“I told the girls in the locker room that (the second half) was the best defensive half we’ve played all year,” Carthage coach Scott Moore said. “We have to build on that and continue to play like that. Unfortunately, one or two little miscues each quarter quickly resulted in a bucket for them.
“Offensively, I thought our kids did a lot of things right, the ball just did not go in for us. We got good looks at 3s, they don’t go down. We did the hard work of getting to the basket, the ball rims out. We get a foul call, we don’t make enough free throws. We have to put more points on the board. We are not going to win a lot of games scoring in the 30s. We have to be in the 50s as a point total every game and if we get 50 tonight, we get a win.”
Carthage led by three after the first quarter before Leavenworth took a 14-13 lead into the intermission. The Tigers regained the lead by one point near the three-minute mark, but the Pioneers tied the game at 18s by the start of the final eight minutes.
Carthage knocked down two free throws early in the fourth to go back on top before Leavenworth’s Aviana Garrett stepped into a 3-pointer from the wing for a 21-10 lead. Makiya Baker added a score on the break to push the lead to 23-20.
Junior Lauren Choate buried a 3-pointer of her own from the win with five minutes left to tie the game at 23-all.
The lead seesawed back in favor of the Pioneers by three before the Tigers again tied the game at 27-27 with less than two and a half minutes to play.
Leavenworth closed the game with the only real momentum swing when Hailey Garcia drove the lane before dishing off to her left to find Kylee West for a bucket on the low block to put the Pioneers on top 29-27 with 50 seconds left in regulation.
That would be the last field goal of the contest, as Carthage cut the margin to one with a free throw from junior Lexa Youngblood with 34.6 seconds remaining.
Eva Clements earned a foul and went to the charity stripe with 14.8 seconds left and converted the first of two shots to push the lead to 30-28 before West grabbed the offensive rebound on the missed second charity and was fouled with 11.6 ticks left. West converted 1-of-2 free throws to push the lead to three points.
With time running out, Carthage got a clean look at the other end on a deep 3-pointer that was off wide, with the Pioneers grabbing the rebound and sinking the ensuing two free throws after a Tigers’ foul with less than a second to play to seal the win.
West had nine points to lead the Pioneers in scoring. Clements and Baker each finished with six in the win.
Choate closed with 11 points to lead the Tigers in scoring, while Youngblood was right behind with nine. Junior Ashlynn Brust finished with seven points in the loss.
Leavenworth takes on Branson in the fifth-place game at 2:30 p.m. on Saturday.
Carthage is in the seventh-place game against Joplin at 1 p.m. on Saturday.
“We want to come out and play with the same intensity as we played with today on both ends,” Moore said when asked when he wants to see from his team as they wrap up play. “That has to be our basement and we need to build from that. … We have established our base level of intensity for four quarters, now we have to keep increasing our success level each quarter. If we do, I think that will give us a good chance to be successful tomorrow and in the next couple of games heading into the Christmas break.”
