Nevada’s 3-point shooting, defense too much to overcome

By Kyle Troutman [email protected]

For the second year in a row, the Cassville girls basketball team reached the Class 4, District 12 championship game, and also for the second year in a row, the Lady Wildcats suffered the same result.

Cassville fell to Nevada, 54-29, in Nevada in the title tilt on Friday, and Coach Clayton Bagby said the Lady Tigers’ shooting and suffocating defense proved to be too much to overcome.

“We came out and played hard,” Bagby said. “We knew going in against Nevada that they’re going to be physical with us on the defensive end and around the basket, and that we would have to be able to execute well against them. We probably didn’t get off the number of shots we needed to get off against them.”

Cassville led only once in the game, 2-0 after an Alex Holycross field goal on a pass inside. Nevada hit a 3, then got a steal and added 2 more. Holycross came up with a steal and cut the lead to 5-4, but two more Lady Tigers 3-pointers and a Taylor Kennedy 3 had Cassville behind 13-8 at the end of the first.

Nevada continued the trend in the second quarter, going on a 6-0 run after scoring on a pair of steals. Cassville made a 6-0 run of its own to end the first half, with Audrey Kennedy hitting a trey and Holycross driving and converting the and-1 to go into the locker room down 23-17.

After the break, Nevada put together an 18-2 run in the third quarter to balloon the lead to 31-19. The Lady Wildcats cut into the lead in the final frame, but the deficit was too much to overcome.

Bagby said along with getting off more shots, the Lady Wildcats also needed to hit more of the ones they took.

“We normally shoot 50% from inside the 3-point line, and on Friday, we were at 25%,” he said. “So, the opportunities we were able to get, we just didn’t convert on.”

Bagby said Nevada does well from 3-point range, and their center is a solid rebounder.

“No. 10 does a really good job around the basket, rebounding especially, but there’s five girls on the floor all the time that can shoot the ball from the 3-point line. That was an emphasis going in, and I thought we did a decent job overall throughout the game guarding that. They were just able to get a couple there early and get that lead, and they are one of those teams that once they get a lead, it can be hard to come back on them because they wear out the possession on the offensive side and really make you work on your offensive side to be able to get shots.”

Nevada had six 3-pointers in the contest, and Cassville made three.

“Once we got down there in the third quarter we kind of had to start switching out of defense that we had played most of the game,” Bagby said. “They were just able to get more shots in.”

Despite the second consecutive championship loss, Bagby said the future for the Lady Wildcats is bright, losing only one senior in Aubrey Stoufer.

“We’re going to miss Aubrey tremendously,” Bagby said. “She’s one of those that puts up good stats, but she also does a lot of stuff that just doesn’t show up. Against Mount Vernon in the district tournament, the number of rebounds that she went and got was amazing. We should have four starters coming back. If we can get Briley Gross healthy, as she was out for the whole season, she will definitely be a difference maker.

“Then, we’ve got the girls coming up and the athleticism there. In games like that one, we’ve got to develop the ball handling and ability to handle that physicality so we can pull one of those out.”

Cassville’s season ended at 20-8, including a 9-1 run from Jan. 15 to Feb. 12.