MONETT, Mo. — The Carthage High School boys basketball team opened their season on the road in Monett Friday, Dec. 3, 2021. The Tigers were able to dominate on defense forcing Monett into 15 turnovers as well as dominate the Cubs from the free-throw line en route to a 55-45 win.
Carthage went 15 for 24 from the line compared to Monett’s 6 for 11 from the charity stripe. Carthage Coach Nathan Scott acknowledged his team’s ability to control the tempo of the game once they got into a rhythm.
“Monett is a hard-nosed basketball team with 3 experienced guards, just like us, so they stayed in the fight but I felt like we controlled the game after the first 5 mins of the game,” said Scott.
Carthage Senior Joel Pugh led all scorers with 22 points including three 3-pointers. Max Templeman added 16 points with two 3-pointers, Justin Ray chipped in with 9 points and one 3-pointer and Tyler Willis added 4 points to round out the scoring for the Tigers.
Scott was proud of his team’s performance off the bench.
“I really thought our bench was the difference in the game, Logan Carmickle, Sylas Browning, Britt Coy, and Clay Kinder were all great at different times in the game for us,” said Scott. “The guys really competed for 32 full minutes; we had some rough patches of basketball as to be expected in your first game, but we were proud of their intensity.”
Next Up:
The Tigers (1-0) will face Fort Smith Southside 7 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 8, 2021, at home in their opening game of the 75th Annual Carthage Invitational.
