Madison Hall's three-pointer with 1:33 left in the game broke a 26-26 tie and lifted the McDonald County Lady Mustangs to a 34-26 win over Cassville on Monday night at MCHS.
"We came out and executed our game plan," coach Blake Short said. "We hit some shots for a change. We started a little slow offensively, but when we got going we were able to push the ball the best we have in a long while. After a season low Friday, we came back with a big season high tonight. Hopefully this is something we can build on. The girls were excited and ultimately that is what it is all about -- to see them have fun."
After Hall's trey gave the Lady Mustangs a 29-26 lead, McDonald County hit five of seven free throws down the stretch while holding Cassville scoreless.
"Cassville is a good team," Short said. "We had a couple of groups that were working and we didn't go as deep in the bench as we normally do. We are to the point when we get a group working, we are going to stick with them."
The teams entered the fourth period tied at 21-21 before Cassville's Ashlynn Howe hit a short jumper to give the Lady Wildcats a 23-21 lead. But Samantha Frazier answered with a three pointer on the Lady Mustangs' next possession to put McDonald County back on top. Tricia Wattman's bucket extended the lead to three, but Cassville hit three straight free throws to tie the game with 2:44 left setting the stage for Hall's game-winning basket.
Cassville jumped out to an 8-0 lead before McDonald County scored the final points of the quarter as part of an 11-0 run on the way to an 18-12 lead at halftime.
Wattman scored nine points to lead a balanced Lady Mustangs scoring attack. Ragan Wilson added seven points followed by Hall with six points, Frazier five, Caitlyn Sedillos four, Cloee Helm two and Kylie Helm one.
Cassville's 6-3 Madi Stokes was held to eight points to lead the Wildcats.
McDonald County claimed a 45-15 win in the junior varsity game. Leading the scoring was Rita Santillan with 15 points and Jordan Witt with 11. Rounding out the scoring were Meagan Mills and Mattie Leach with five points each, Aspen Bowman four, Frazier and Kylie Helm two each and Leslie Yousey one.
McDonald County improves to 4-11, 1-2 in the Big 8 Conference, heading into its Jan. 12 game at Seneca. The junior varsity game is set to tipoff at 6 p.m. followed by the varsity.
Aurora
The Aurora girls shut out the Lady Mustangs in the first quarter on the way to posting a 47-26 win on Jan. 6 at McDonald County High School.
Aurora led 7-0 at the end of the first quarter and a three pointer by Kaylee Huffman to open the second quarter stretched the lead to 10-0 before McDonald County scored its first point of the game on a free throw by Ragan Wilson with 6:41 left in the first half.
Aurora led just 19-7 at halftime before opening the second half by outscoring McDonald County 19-4 in the six minutes of the third period for a 38-11 lead.
McDonald County scored the final six points of the quarter to close to 38-17 entering the final period, but after McDonald County's Madison Mitchell opened the fourth quarter with a short jumper to make the score 38-19, the Lady Mustangs could get no closer.
"We just did not come out ready to play," Short said. "We are really struggling finding a group that all five want to play at the same time and be aggressive to the basket. They may do it for three of four minutes and then not do it for two quarters. We have to find a group that is going to do it and if we find a group that is going to do that, we may not sub at all."
Tricia Wattman's six points led McDonald County in scoring. Rounding out the scoring were Madison Hall with five, Meagan Mills and Kylie Helm four each, Wilson three, and Leslie Yousey and Mitchell two each.
Aurora was led by Huffman with 18 points and Cheyanne Eustsler with 14.
"There wasn't much positive to take out of this game," Short said. "No one wanted to look to score. I thought their defense was solid, but it was not anything that should have kept us from being aggressive and attacking. That was a team I honestly thought we probably would be favored against, but we came out and kind of just laid an egg. We really didn't play hard or put the effort into the right areas."
McDonald County claimed a 65-18 win in the junior varsity game. Alexia Kitlen scored 17 points and Mattie Leach had 14 to lead the Lady Mustangs.
Rounding out the scoring were Rita Santillan nine points, Jordan Witt Mills and Yousey six each, Aspen Bowman four, Kylie Helm two and Samantha Frazier one.
Sports on 01/12/2017