The McDonald County Lady Mustangs took the lead out of the gate and led wire-to-wire on the way to a 50-15 win over the Cedar Ridge (Ark.) Lady Timber Wolves in the final round of last week's 62nd Annual Neosho Holiday Classic.
McDonald County scored the first seven points of the game against an outmanned Cedar Ridge squad, which started the game with six players, then played the final three minutes with only three players on the floor after two fouled out and another went into the locker room for an undisclosed reason.
"We came out a little better today and got off to a good start," said coach Blake Short. "We made some shots today. They were some of the same shots we have had every game, but we just made some today. We also played a little better defense and we took care of the ball. We only had six or seven turnovers. It was nice to get a win in a game that everybody contributed."
McDonald County turned its 7-0 run to start the game into a 12-3 lead at the end of the first quarter. McDonald County's Samantha Frazier scored the first two baskets before teammate Madison Hall hit a three pointer to start the second quarter. Frazier and Hall then added back-to-back baskets to give the Lady Mustangs a 23-3 lead before Cedar Ridge scored the final three points of the second period to trail 23-6 at halftime.
McDonald County led 29-10 midway in the third period before scoring the final six points of the period to take a 35-10 lead entering the fourth period.
Cedar Ridge trailed 37-10 with 6:09 left in the game when its second player fouled out to drop the Lady Timber Wolves down to four players. With 2:53 McDonald County led 46-13 when a third member of the Cedar Ridge squad went to the locker room during a time out.
Frazier finished with 13 points to lead a balanced Lady Mustangs scoring attack. Rounding out the scoring for McDonald County were Hall, Tricia Wattman and Caitlynn Sedillos six points each, Jordan Witt and Meagan Mills four each, Cloee Helm, Ragan Wilson, Rita Santillan, Aspen Bowman and Mattie Leach two each and Kylie Helm one.
McDonald County improves to 3-9 for the season entering its Jan. 5 game at Lamar in the Big 8 Conference opener for the Lady Mustangs.
Van Buren
Van Buren (Ark.) used a smothering match-up zone defense to hold McDonald County to five points in the Lady Pointers 39-5 win on Dec. 28 in the tournament's opening round.
Van Buren's Bailey Jones hit consecutive three pointers to open the game before Wilson banked in a short jumper from the lane to cut the margin to 6-2 with 4:30 left in the first period.
The Lady Mustangs were then were held scoreless until Frazier scored on a layup with 4:07 left in the game, a span of over 24 minutes without a point.
Van Buren led 13-2 at the end of the first period and shutout McDonald County in the second and third quarters to take a 36-2 lead into the fourth quarter.
"If we did get a good look, the shot was nowhere in the vicinity of going in," Short said. "Even five or six shots from the block weren't even sniffing at going in. They are good -- very good -- but we are better than that. We are struggling right now finding our identity. We need to compete harder. It is easy to get your head down when a team is better than you and running you all over the place."
In addition to baskets by Wilson and Frazier, Santillan hit a free throw for the other Lady Mustang point.
"It is frustrating," Short said. "We couldn't get anything to go our way, but a lot of that is on us."
Bentonville
The Bentonville (Ark.) Lady Tigers scored the first 10 points of the game on the way to handing McDonald County a 53-25 loss Dec. 29 in the first round of the consolation bracket.
Bentonville led 19-4 at the end of the first quarter and stretched the margin to 38-7 at halftime before McDonald County outscored the Lady Tigers 11-5 in the third quarter to cut the margin to 43-18 entering the final period.
"We had a little talk at halftime and we came out and played hard in the second half," Short said. "That's been my main thing. You can lose to a team that is better than you, but if you don't play as hard as you can and do things the best you can, you don't know how good you can play. In the second half we played hard and that is why we beat them in the third quarter. We might not beat them in a whole game, but that shows what we can do.
"Wattman scored eight points to lead McDonald County. Rounding out the scoring for the Lady Mustangs were Leslie Yousey and Santillan four points each, Hall three and Frazier, Sedillos and Mills two each.
"Everybody was more aggressive in the second half," Short said. "Everybody was looking to shoot and our defense was better and our rebounding was way better. The goal was to come in the second half and keep off the running clock and for the most part we did that."
Sports on 01/05/2017