The Nevada Tigers knew they had a tough opponent going in against the undefeated St Michaels the Archangel Catholic Crusaders out of Lee’s Summit, MO, and they held tough throughout 3 quarters, but ultimately ended up falling to the Crusaders and heading to the consolation bracket of the Butler tournament.
Nevada started the game by winning the tip, however, an empty first offensive possession would give the Crusaders the chance to get on the board first. The game was very fast-paced with both teams getting up and down the floor quickly with a lot of physical play. Nevada’s first points would come off of 2 Jack Cheaney free throws, and the Tigers continued to battle back and forth on both ends of the court ending the 1st quarter with a score of Nevada 7 and St. Michaels 9.
St. Michaels started the scoring in the second quarter with a quick 3-pointer showing that they could do some damage from the arc and in the lane. Mason Majors would make a nice drive to the left baseline putting in the lay-up to keep the Tigers within striking distance. St. Michaels played a very aggressive man-to-man defense the entire 94 feet of the court causing some chaos and turnovers, and leading to some easy buckets for the Crusaders. Uche Mba battled hard on the offensive boards giving himself multiple opportunities to make it to the line, however once again, that line proved to be a struggle for the Tigers to convert into points while the clock was stopped. Going into halftime the Crusaders would take a lead of 20-14.
The Crusaders came out super hot in the 3rd quarter going on a 6-0 run before the Tigers broke it up with a perfect assist from Riddick Shook to Brice Budd as he cut through an opening in the middle of the lane. The Tigers began to have some offensive success throughout the quarter putting up 19 points but were still unable to get enough stops on the defensive end to gain much ground, and they would go into the final 8 minutes down by 9 with a score of 33-41 after a 3-pointer by Gabe Smith at the buzzer.
The 4th quarter is where the length and depth of the Crusaders really began to show as they continued their full-court pressure and got several easy lay-ups in transition. Before the quarter was halfway over they had built a 20-point lead and Coach Shaun Gray began putting in more players from the bench, as the Tigers still have 2 games coming up this week in the tournament. The Tigers showed last week in the Carthage tournament that they can be prepared to bounce back even with an opening-round loss.
The Tigers would be led in scoring by Jack Cheaney with 14 points, Brice Budd chipped in 9 and the Tigers went back to just below .500 at 3-4.
Nevada continues to show grit in every game that they play as they continue to learn and grow together as a team. The Tigers will be back in action on Thursday in Butler at 7 pm against either KC Metro or Butler.
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