The Nevada Tigers would make the short trip east on 54 highway to take on the El Dorado Springs Bulldogs Friday night for what would be an exciting game of basketball with an electric atmosphere. For those of us who witnessed games in the 2020-2021 season, these were the types of games you hated to see the upperclassmen miss. Packed bleachers and full student sections for both teams that fill the gym with adrenaline and drama, making high school basketball one of the best sports to experience playing on the court. While we took it for granted before, we fully understand how special it is now, and soak it all in, even the parts that can get a bit dicey.
The Bulldogs would put the first score on the board with a 3-pointer after the Tigers opened the game on an empty possession. Brice Budd and Riddick Shook would both make it to the free throw line to give the Tigers 4 points, but it would be just over four-and-a-half minutes remaining in the quarter before Kellen Braden would give Nevada their first field goal after a defensive steal would give him the opportunity to take the ball down for a lay-up and give the Tigers their first lead at 6-5. Jack Cheaney would follow that up on Nevada’s next possession with a teardrop shot and extend the lead by 2 more. Riddick Shook tried to do what he does best for the Tigers and take a charge, however, the whistle would blow the other way and he would pick up the foul and the Bulldogs would get the basket to fall but missed the plus-one opportunity at the free throw line giving the Tigers a small break. A Nevada turnover on the other end would give the Bulldogs the opportunity to take the lead back and with 2:40 to go in the quarter they would do just that with a score of 9-8. Gabe Smith would get fouled on a shot and go 1 of 2 from the line to tie things back up, and Jack Cheaney would grab the rebound from the missed shot and put the ball in for the Tigers to go back up by 2. The Tigers were shooting bonus free throws in this period at the 1:33 mark where they would step up and knock them down which would prove to be vital later in the game as shots seemed to be very hard to not only get up against a tough Bulldog defense, but there would be no friendly rolls once it reached the rim. Nevada would hit 10 of 12 free throws in this quarter alone. Although on one play Brice Budd would drive and try to kick it out to an open Jack Cheaney for 3, but was fouled on the way to the basket, so the Tigers had to settle for the 2 from the free throw line. The Bulldogs would launch a shot from beyond half court to end the quarter that wouldn’t come close to the basket and after one quarter of play the score was 17-12, but the atmosphere and tension in the gym felt like the game had been going much longer.
The second quarter would have many people searching up a call in regards to a player stepping out-of-bounds and then being the first one to touch the ball as it isn’t something that is called regularly, and not sure it fit this situation, but either way that was the call and the Tigers would give the Bulldogs the ball where they would step up and convert a tough drive to the basket on their end of the court. A moving screen on Nevada’s next possession would give ElDo another chance to score, however, they were unable to get the basket to fall and missed both free throws from the line. The Tigers would get the ball back, but as they had earlier in the week against Carl Junction, would get several opportunities near the basket and not come out with a basket. Mason Majors was able to find the bottom of the net with a 3-pointer, but Eldo would answer with a bucket from an offensive rebound, a defensive stop, and then another bucket to get the game back within 2. On the next Tiger possession they would miss the shot, the Bulldogs would grab the defensive rebound and cap it off with a runout dunk in transition, and just like that the game was tied at 20 all with about 5:00 to go in the half. A Tiger defensive rebound and Kellen Braden assist would end with a Jack Cheaney 3-pointer and the lead back in their hands. The Tiger defense came to play and they would come up with another stop that would give Riddick Shook the chance to nail a corner 3 with just over 2 minutes to go in the half. A Tiger foul would send the Bulldogs to the line where they would hit 1 of 2 to put the Tiger lead back to 5. Uche Mba would grab an offensive rebound on the other end and try to put it back but would get fouled in the process and convert both free throws, continuing the Tiger dominance at the line and on the boards. The Bulldogs would get the final words in the half with an offensive rebound and putback of their own to go into the locker room down by 5, at 28-23.
While the Tigers would lead by as many as 9 points in the 3rd quarter, the Bulldogs won this one scoring 11 to the Tigers 10 in the 8-minute period. They would get the ball first and knock down a bucket against some close defense, but Nevada would answer on the other end with Jack Cheaney assisting Brice Budd for a 3, which was his first field goal of the game. The Bulldogs would put up a 3 on their next possession, but it wouldn’t fall, however, Kellen Braden would find an open Gabe Smith for 3, and just like that the Tigers would start building some momentum. Both teams would come up empty in their next 2 possessions in some very helter-skelter-like play before the Bulldogs would get the old-fashioned 3-point play to make it 28-34 with just over 5:30 to go in the 3rd. More empty possessions for both teams as the physicality of the game began to show before Riddick Shook would get the charge call, the Tigers would get the ball back and after some efficient ball movement around the perimeter, Kellen Braden would find an open Gabe Smith at the basket for the easy lay-in. The Bulldogs would answer with a bucket of their own and again failed to convert the free throw for the extra point, but they would get the ball back under their basket after the Tigers would hit the rebound out-of-bounds. Uche Mba would block a shot at the bucket, and Nevada would come up with another defensive stop but would have a couple of empty possessions before Brice Budd would find Uche Mba for the jump shot under the basket with just over 2:30 in the quarter. The Bulldogs would get two more scores before the quarter would end to go into the final 8 minutes with Nevada 38, El Dorado Springs 34.
The 4th quarter would start with several empty long possessions before Gabe Smith would find his way into the lane for an open shot. The Bulldogs would answer with a bucket in the lane, and with just over 3 minutes to play in the quarter, the score was 36-42. The Tigers would answer when Brice Budd found an opening on the right side of the lane, and even though the Bulldog defenders would recover, he was able to get the basket in. The Tigers would get a tough defensive rebound from Alex Ast who made a great outlet pass to a running Kellen Braden for the transition basket to extend the Tiger lead back to 10 with just over 2 minutes to play. The Bulldogs weren’t going down quietly though, and would answer with a quick bucket, but would follow that with a defensive foul sending Nevada to the line for 2 shots where Braden would hit 1 of 2. The next possession would have Alex Ast work hard again to hold on to the defensive rebound and get the outlet to Jack Cheaney this time who would get fouled on the shot and knock down both free throws. El Do would make another bucket before Riddick Shook would make it to the free-throw line and hit both. A Bulldog 3 would get them back within 8 at 51-43, but the Tigers continued to be efficient from the free throw line, terrorizing the Bulldog strategy to stop the clock. Brice Budd would block an attempted corner 3-pointer from the Bulldogs’ top-scorer, but they would get a quick lay-in for the final bucket of the game off of their inbound play. The Tigers would throw the ball in with just under 10 seconds to play and hold it as time ran out, and the final score would read 53-45.
The Tigers presented a very balanced attack in their team win against the Bulldogs with Jack Cheaney and Brice Budd scoring 11 apiece, Gabe Smith adding 9, Riddick Shook and Kellen Braden each having 7, and Uche Mba and Mason Majors having 4 apiece. Alex Ast didn’t make it in the scoring column but gave huge defensive boards that would lead to points on the other end.
After the game Head Coach Shaun Gray stated that “Tonight’s defensive effort is what ended up being the difference. It all started with Brice Budd and the way he was able to keep PG Landon Murry off the 3-point line. The 40% 3-point shooter is the motor of the Bulldog team, and keeping him off the 3-point line was key. The rest of our guys really locked in on keeping the bigger Bulldogs off the glass and to contain the drives into the paint.” he also added “We got big minutes and contributions from our bench and all 8 guys in the rotation provided big plays for us throughout the night, and we really loved the energy from the traveling Nevada faithful tonight. We hope to see some great crowds in Wynn Gym next week.”
The Tigers will get to take the weekend off before hitting conference play hard next week, starting with a make-up game from earlier in the season against the Lamar Tigers on Monday night, Monett on Tuesday, and will finish the week with Courtwarming on Friday. All games will be home games at Wynn Gymnasium at Nevada High School. The Tigers are now 10-9 overall and 1-1 in conference play and hope to put all of their experience to work in this week’s conference games.
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