The McDonald County Lady Mustang defense forced three steals and the offense scored six points in the first minute to spark the Lady Mustangs to a 61-23 romp over Cassville Monday night at MCHS.
"We played pretty well tonight," said coach Blake Short. "Defensively we set the tone early and did some good things and frustrated them from the beginning. We got out running and we shot the ball extremely well. I wouldn't hesitate to say we shot 65 to 70 percent. We didn't shoot many three's, but from three-point line we were five for seven or five for eight."
McDonald County, behind eight points from Coley Ickes and six from Preslea Reece, jumped out to a 20-6 lead at the end of the first quarter. Reece scored nine points and Ickes seven in the second quarter as McDonald County stretched its lead to 43-15 at halftime.
Cheyenne Greenup scored six points in the third quarter as McDonald County continued to pull away, taking a 58-19 advantage entering the fourth quarter.
"We shot extremely well, but that all started with our defense," Short said. "Offensively, we did move the ball well and got the shots we wanted and then we were able to knock them down. We played a complete game."
Reece finished with 22 points while Ickes had 17 and Greenup 10 to lead McDonald County. Rounding out the scoring were Baili Nelson with four points, Cendy Garcia with three, Dakota Bunch and Madison Hall two each and Tricia Wattman one.
Madi Stokes led Cassville with seven points.
McDonald County improves to 11-3 overall, 4-1 in the Big 8 Conference heading into its Jan. 13 nonconfernce contest at Nevada. The Lady Mustangs are at Carthage Jan. 15 before returning home Jan. 27 to face Webb City after a 12-day layoff.
Lamar
Reece scored 22 points and Bunch 11 to lead the Lady Mustangs to a 57-37 win over Lamar Jan. 8 at Lamar High School.
McDonald County took a 12-7 lead at the end of the first quarter and stretched it to 29-20 at halftime. The Lady Mustangs led 47-32 at the end of the third quarter.
Rounding out the scoring for McDonald County were Ickes and Nelson with eight each and Garcia and Greenup with four each.
Darrah Bartlett led Lamar with 11 points.
Sports on 01/15/2015