After being held to just six points in the first half, the McDonald County Lady Mustangs erupted for 35 second half points, but it wasn't enough in a 52-41 loss to the Carthage Tigers on Jan. 15 at MCHS.
"We knew Carthage is a good team," said coach Blake Short. "They beat us by 30 points earlier this season. We talked about them a lot this week and what they were going to do. Defensively in the first half we were great. We just could not put the ball in the hole."
Carthage led 9-2 at the end of the first quarter and stretched the margin to 18-6 at halftime. McDonald County trailed 31-18 entering the fourth quarter, but a 6-0 run cut the lead to 36-30 with 3:52 left in the game.
Carthage answered with seven consecutive points over the next two minutes to put the game away.
"I thought our defense was still real good in the second half, but we had a couple of stretches where we gave up four or six straight points and that was the difference," Short said. "For sure I thought we outplayed them in the second half. They are a really good team with really good players. Offensively that is the best half of basketball we have played. We had our chances. If we get a couple of stops and knock down a couple more shots, we are right there at the end."
Dakota Bunch led McDonald County with 18 points while Baili Nelson added 11 points. Rounding out the scoring for the Lady Mustangs were Tricia Wattman with five points, Cloee Helm with four and Madison Hall with three.
""Dakota Bunch had a great game," Short said. "The team played well. We started playing offense with some aggressiveness. Everybody looked to looked to shoot and played with confidence."
Maya Williams led Carthage with 11 points.
McDonald County falls to 2-13 for the season, including a 1-4 mark in the Big 8 Conference. The team's next game is set for Jan. 26 at Webb City. Games begin at 6 p.m.
Carthage added a 34-29 win in the junior varsity contest. McDonald County was led by Samantha Frazier with eight points. Rounding out the scoring were Megan Mills with six points, Kylie Helm with four, Kenzie Stephens and Aspen Bowman three each, Madison Mitchell and Caitlyn Sedillos two each and Jordan Witt one.
McDonald County claimed a 29-26 win in the freshman game behind 10 points from Kylie Helm and nine from Frazier. Mattie Leach added five points, Darla Igisomar three and Alexia Kitlen two.
The freshmen girls also had a 34-14 win over Carl Junction on Jan. 12 at MCHS. Frazier scored 14 points to lead McDonald County while Kylie Helm had six, Leach and Kitlen four each, Niki Salas, Karen Gasca and Igisomar two each to round out the scoring for the Lady Mustangs.
Nixa
The Nixa Lady Eagles claimed a 48-28 win over the Lady Mustangs Monday night in a nonconference game at Nixa High School.
Nixa led just 17-13 at the end of the first quarter, but outscored McDonald County 7-2 in the second to take a 24-15 lead at halftime. Nixa used a 16-5 edge in the third quarter for a 40-20 lead after three quarters.
Bunch scored seven points to lead the Lady Mustangs. Rounding out the scoring were Cloee Helm, Kelsey Thornton and Sedillos with five points each, Wattman four and Nelson two.
Nixa added a 43-13 win in the junior varsity game. Sedillos scored four points while Frazier had three and Witt, Leach and Mitchell had two each for McDonald County.
Sports on 01/21/2016