After back-to-back losses against two very talented teams, the Nevada Tigers showed their grit and perseverance in a very convincing win against the Fort Smith-Southside Mavericks in the second day of the 77th Annual Carthage Invitational.
Starting out with a 3-pointer from well beyond the right arc by Jack Cheaney, Nevada would take the lead and never lose it. The Tigers remained calm from the full-court pressure attack from the Mavericks and found several opportunities to get to the basket. They also are working to regain their efficient 3-point percentage with Riddick Shook knocking down 3 in the 1st quarter alone.
Southside took the early punch but refused to go away going on an 8-0 run and eventually tied the game back up at 13 all. The Tigers would collect themselves and go on a run of their own ending the 1st quarter with a score of 21-14.
The second quarter the Tigers began putting on some full-court pressure of their own and were able to take advantage of some Maverick turnovers. That, and their 6’6’’ center getting into some foul trouble helped the Tigers take their first double-digit lead on a great cut to the basket by sophomore Alex Ast. Ast would again show his ability to move without the ball and hit a backdoor lay-up at the buzzer giving Nevada a 34-20 lead going into halftime.
Nevada would pick up right where they left off continuing to take the ball to the basket in the 3rd quarter. The Mavericks also showed some grit, when down by as many as 18, they went on another 8-0 run trying to get the lead down under double digits, but the Tigers refused to back down and with 1:27 to go in the quarter had built their lead back to 20. When the buzzer went off to prepare for the final quarter of the game, Nevada was up 52-35.
The Tigers would keep their main rotation in throughout most of the 4th quarter as the Mavericks continued with full-court pressure, but their lead was never taken under the double-digit mark. The last couple of minutes got a bit sloppy with neither team able to get the ball into play, but the Tigers would hold on for a 63-48 win to put their record at 2-3 and give themselves an opportunity to play for 5th place in the consolation bracket.
Head Coach Shaun Gray was proud of how his team came back after two blow-out losses, and said that they did a “much better job of handling pressure tonight and were able to break the full-court zone press and find our open teammates.”
It was also another game where the Tigers were able to show the balance on their team with all 8 rotation players putting points on the scoreboard and 3 of them in double figures. Jack Cheaney led the way with 17 points (only one of those being a 3-pointer and that was the opening shot), Kellen Braded added 13, and Brice Budd was right behind him chipping in 12.
The Tigers will be right back on the court tomorrow, Saturday, December 9th to take on Leavenworth who won their game tonight against the Carthage JV. Coach Gray said, “we hope to build off of this effort tomorrow.”
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