The East Newton High School girls' basketball team evened the score with McDonald County last week.
Not in the game -- they did more than just even the score -- but in the season series.
The Lady Patriots avenged a 14-point loss earlier in the season with a 44-35 win on Jan. 23 at MCHS.
"Right now we are not shooting the ball as well as we had been and not as well as we are capable," said coach Chris Kennedy. "I feel like we are rushing our shots. We need to do a better job with that. Offensively, we were not moving very well tonight. We took some shots out of character and we didn't do a very good job of rebounding either. This was the second game in a row where we weren't aggressive throughout the whole game."
East Newton scored the first five points of the game and led 10-7 at the end of the first quarter.
The Lady Patriots stretched the lead to 18-11 at halftime and to 25-15 midway through the third quarter before McDonald County went on a 9-0 run to cut the deficit to 25-24 late in the period.
But East Newton closed the quarter by scoring the last five points of the period to take a 30-24 lead into the fourth quarter.
The Lady Patriots led 40-30 before McDonald County's Rita Santillan scored five consecutive points to cut the lead to 40-35 with 49.9 seconds left. But East Newton's McKenzie Brasier hit four consecutive free throws down the stretch to seal the win.
Santillan finished with 12 points to lead McDonald County. Rounding out the scoring for the Lady Mustangs were Sydney Killion and Ragan Wilson with six points each, Caitlyn Barton with five and Kristin Penn, Laney Brock and Abby Wiseman with two each.
Kaitlyn Hailey scored 12 and Josie Guinn had 11 to lead East Newton.
McDonald County claimed a 34-28 win in the junior varsity game.
Addy Leach and Samara Smith scored eight points each to lead McDonald County, followed by Kloe Myers with six points, Megan Elwood and Helen Martinez four each and Sosha Howard and Ebenne Munoz two each.
McDonald County falls to 5-9 overall, 2-2 in the Big 8 Conference, heading into its Jan. 28 game against Cassville. The Lady Mustangs host Neosho on Jan. 31 for homecoming.
Monett
Monett used a 12-4 edge in the third quarter to key the Lady Cubs to a 42-35 win on Jan. 20 at Monett High School.
McDonald County led 5-3 at the end of the first quarter and 18-15 at halftime before Monett took a 27-22 lead after three quarters.
McDonald County was led by Santillan with eight points, followed by Penn with seven points, Killion and Jaylie Sanny with six each, Laney Wilson four and Ragan Wilson and Smith two each.
Keisha George scored 21 points to lead Monett.
McDonald County avoided a sweep with a 31-20 win in the junior varsity game.
Elwood scored nine points to lead the Lady Mustangs, followed by Smith with seven, Myers and Wiseman with four each, Leach three, Howard two and Kylan Horton and Analisa Ramirez one each.
Sports on 01/30/2020