Lady Lions Maul Lady Mustangs

RICK PECK/SPECIAL TO MCDONALD COUNTY PRESS McDonald County's Ragan Wilson splits Baxter Springs' Abbey Underhill (21) and Delaney Barnes (24) while driving to the basket during the Lady Mustangs' 41-35 loss on Dec.14 at MCHS.
RICK PECK/SPECIAL TO MCDONALD COUNTY PRESS McDonald County's Ragan Wilson splits Baxter Springs' Abbey Underhill (21) and Delaney Barnes (24) while driving to the basket during the Lady Mustangs' 41-35 loss on Dec.14 at MCHS.

Trailing by eight midway through the second period, the Baxter Springs Lady Lions tied the game by halftime and never trailed in the second half on the way to claiming a 41-35 decision over the McDonald County Lady Mustangs on Dec. 14 at MCHS.

"We got off to a good start doing things right," said coach Blake Short. "We were aggressive on defense early, but that kind of faded as the game went on. From about midway through the second quarter on, they outworked us. We got stagnant and stood around instead of doing what we need to do. Defensively, we have to keep the intensity level up the whole game or we are not going to compete with a lot of teams or beat the teams we should."

McDonald County jumped out to an early 7-2 lead behind baskets by Ragan Wilson and Rita Santillan and a three-pointer by Sam Frazier.

Baxter Springs cut the lead to 9-5 at the end of the first quarter, before the Lady Mustangs went on a 6-2 run to open the second quarter to take a 15-7 lead. Megan Mills hit a trey and a free throw, and Jaylie Sanny added a short jumper to key the spurt.

But Baxter Springs scored the final eight points of the quarter, including a three-pointer at the buzzer, to tie the game at 15-15 at intermission.

The Lady Lions opened the second half with an 8-3 run to take a 23-18 lead early in the third period. The teams traded baskets the rest of the period before Baxter Springs hit a pair of free throws to close out the period with a 31-26 lead.

Baxter Springs stretched its lead to 36-28 early in the final period, but McDonald County used a pair of steals to help cut the margin to 36-32 with 2:17 left in the game.

A short jumper and a three-point play in Baxter's next two trips down the floor clinched the Lady Lions' 41-35 win.

"If we aren't aggressive on defense, we aren't going to get those easy baskets we need; and if we don't get some easy ones, that really hurts because (we) struggle to score at times," Short said. "We missed 12 layups tonight and we got out-rebounded big time. Offensively, we are just not where we need to be."

Santillan finished with 10 points to lead McDonald County, followed by Frazier with nine, Wilson eight, Mills six and Sanny two.

Delaney Barnes scored 13 for Baxter Springs to lead all scorers.

McDonald County claimed a 39-31 win in the junior varsity game, behind 20 points from Addy Mick.

The Lady Mustangs led 6-2 after the first period and stretched the margin to 17-11 at halftime before Baxter springs closed to 24-22 after three quarters.

Caitlyn Barton, Lily Allman and Laney Wilson added four points each for McDonald County. Sydney Killion had three, Zoe Vallance two and Katie Kester and Kristen Penn one each.

McDonald County falls to 0-6 for the season heading into the Neosho Holiday Classic on Dec. 27-29 at Neosho Middle School.

Sports on 12/21/2017