Wildcats, Lady Wildcats look toward conference play

By Kyle Troutman [email protected]

The Cassville boys and girls basketball teams both played in the Berryville Holiday Tournament in Arkansas last week, each posting 1-2 records after playing well in two games and struggling in their third.

Mike Ray, Cassville boys basketball coach, said in the Wildcats’ opener against host and eventual champion Berryville (Ark.), the team played solid.

“We had a chance late in the fourth quarter to tie it, but we lost by 6,” he said. “We played well against Valley Springs (Ark.) in a 50-42 win, then we lost the last game to Mountain View (Ark.), 53-30. I don’t know if we ran out of gas or didn’t handle the break well. Mountain View is a good team but not 23 points better than us. We played those first two games well and have to bounce back from the third and see where we are this week.”

Clayton Bagby, Cassville girls basketball coach, said the Lady Wildcats shared a similar fate.

“In our first game against Green Forest (Ark.), we got off to a slow start, but our defense played well,” he said. “When we didn’t have our best day shooting, we were able to pull away in the third quarter and get the win, 53-34. Our last two games, we played two really good teams with 26 wins between them. 

“We’re trying to figure out our starts. We went down 18 to Berryville and had a chance in the fourth quarter to cut it to 2, but they extended it back out. Against Valley Springs, the toll of the last two games got to us, and we were a little tired. We didn’t execute or play defense as well. We held them to 41, but we didn’t give ourselves a chance to win with our execution.”

Ray said while the final contest was a tough one, over the course of the tournament, the Wildcats progressed.

“We are starting to get our roles more identified,” Ray said. “We’ve had a lot of guys missing for injuries or other reasons. In fact, we haven’t had a practice all season where we’ve had the full team. We enjoyed some continuity over the break, but we still have a long way to go.”

Ray said his upperclassmen performed well in Arkansas, and that helped the underclassmen level up as well.

“It’s a more physical style of play in Arkansas than we see in Missouri, and we hope that last day was an outlier,” he said.

Bagby said the Lady Wildcats knew they were facing stiff competition in Arkansas, and he echoed the sentiment about physicality.

“We knew it would be tough to play for first in that tournament because there were two 13-win teams,” he said. “But I thought we did a good job playing a little different type of basketball. It was more physical, and we were able to handle that better as it went on. We hope that benefits us as we move into conference play.”

Ray said on Monday the Wildcats were prepping for Tuesday’s Big 8 contest against Aurora.

“They won districts last year and return a couple of players, so that’s a good test for us,” he said. “On Friday, we play at McDonald County. They have a new coach but are playing really well lately. We’ve been on the road a lot, and it’s tough in this conference because coaches do well scouting and preparing their teams.”

Beyond the two conference contests, the Wildcats will open the Crane Tournament against an all-too-familiar Purple and Gold foe.

“Next week, we are the No. 5 seed in the Crane Tournament and open against the No. 4 seed, Monett,” Ray said. “That will be a tough rivalry game for the first round of a tournament.”

Bagby said the Lady Wildcats are also gearing up for Big 8 competition, also facing Aurora and McDonald County on the road this week.

“You learn more in losses than you do in wins, and we got a good idea of some stuff we need to work on that did not show up earlier in the season,” he said. “We have two tough games this week, but we expect to compete for a conference title, and our district has a lot of conference teams; so, if we continue to work on ourselves, we expect to compete for that title, also.”