The McDonald County High School boys' basketball team fell to 0-4 for the season with losses to Neosho and West Plains in last week's 71st Carthage Invitational Boys Basketball Tournament.
Against Neosho in the consolation semifinals on Dec. 1, McDonald County led 49-44 with five minutes left in the game, but Neosho outscored the Mustangs 10-0 the rest of the way to claim a 54-49 decision.
The border rivals traded baskets for the first quarter, which ended in a 14-14 tie. McDonald County opened the second quarter with a 7-2 run to take a 21-16 lead.
Neosho answered by outscoring McDonald County 9-3 over the next four minutes to take a 25-24 lead before the Mustangs Boston Dowd stole a pass and converted a layup and Andrew Landers hit one of two free throws to give the Mustangs a 27-26 lead at intermission.
McDonald County led throughout the third quarter, building a 34-28 lead early in the period before Neosho cut the deficit to 43-40 at the end of the quarter.
Tim Shields scored the first basket of the fourth quarter off an offensive rebound to give the Mustangs a five-point lead. Neosho cut the margin to one before Cooper Reece and Shields scored for the Mustangs to stretch the margin to 49-44 with just over five minutes left.
But the Mustangs were held scoreless the rest of the way. Neosho's Kaden King tied the game with a three-pointer with 2:31 left. Brady Wise gave the Wildcats the lead for good with a short jumper with 1:26 left before Neosho closed out the game with three free throws, the final two coming with .5 seconds left following a Mustang turnover.
Reece led three Mustangs in double figures with 18 points. Blake Gravette added 11 points and Dowd finished with 10. Rounding out the scoring for McDonald County were Peyton Barton with five points, Shields with four and Landers with one.
Wise finished with 32 points to lead all scorers.
West Plains jumped out to a 28-13 lead at the end of the first quarter and cruised to an 81-47 win on Dec. 2 in the seventh-place game.
The Zizzers stretched their lead to 49-26 at intermission and 63-36 after three quarters.
Reece led the Mustangs with 13 points, followed by Bucky Harrell with eight points, Cole DelosSantos with six, Dowd with five, Gravette, Shields and Cade Smith with four each and Kirby Townsend with three.
"We have started the year out with some pretty tough competition," said coach Kyle Fields. "We have gotten better and we are going to continue to get better. We are still early in the season and we are going to get better, but we have a long ways to go. We are headed in the right direction and looking forward to this stretch against some good teams in St. Mary's and Shiloh (Christian)."
McDonald County's next game is on Dec. 8 at St. Mary's Colgan in Pittsburg, Kan. The team is scheduled to play Shiloh Christian in Springdale on Dec. 19.
Sports on 12/07/2017