It was a rough night for the Tigers.
Carthage’s boys and girls basketball teams both lost first-round games Tuesday evening in their respective invitationals. Neither game was particularly close.
The girls, seeded fifth, suffered a 49-33 loss to Springdale Arkansas’s Har-Ber, the fourth seed in the Carthage Lady Tigers Basketball Invitational. The eighth-seeded boys played the nightcap and lost 76-41 to top-seeded Joplin in the 72nd Carthage Boys Basketball Invitational.
Tournament action continues on Thursday.
Har-Ber 49, Carthage 33
As head coach Chad Jones put it, his team couldn’t throw a haymaker when it needed to.
In what turned into a game of runs, Carthage used a 15-3 burst to take a 25-24 lead late in the third quarter of play.
Eighteen seconds later, Har-Ber’s Caylan Koons scored to give the Wildcats back the lead. It was the start of a 17-0 run for Har-Ber that put the game away.
“In the end we just couldn’t go toe-to-toe throwing the haymakers back we needed to,” Jones said.
Carthage got off to a sluggish start. The Tigers went three-and-a-half minutes without a field goal to start the game and trailed by as many as seven in the first quarter, which ended with Har-Ber up 15-8.
Neither team could score in the second quarter. The Wildcats made just two baskets in the first six minutes, and Carthage’s first field goal came at the 1:43 mark when senior Sydney Peters sank a 15-footer.
Senior Jillian Brunnert connected on a three pointer at the buzzer to make it a 21-13 game at the half.
Sophomore Hailey Fullerton – the team’s leading scorer a year ago – opened the third quarter with two-straight baskets after being held scoreless in the first half.
Brunnert scored with 6:03 left in the third to keep Carthage within five points. Senior Mia Duncan followed with a field goal and two free throws to make it a one-point game. After a Har-Ber free throw, Fullerton scored from three-point range and Carthage led 25-24 with 2:07 left in the third.
“We felt like the adjustments we made at halftime were going to help us out a little bit,” Jones said. “We came back and made that run there, got a little bit of confidence and they answered. They were a state runner up last year in Arkansas in Class 7. They know what it means to be in big games and match run for run. We just couldn’t answer after that one in the third quarter.”
What followed was another long scoring drought for the Tigers. After going more than six minutes without a point in the second quarter, Carthage went more than five minutes without a point this time. The team trailed 31-25 at the end of the third quarter, and when Fullerton made a three pointer at the 4:20 mark of the fourth quarter, Carthage trailed by double digits.
“We just struggled to score,” Jones said. “It was a combination of them changing defenses a little bit and they went to a box-and-one there for a little bit on Fullerton and kind of took her out of the game a little bit. We need some other people to step up. That’s something we can learn from this game.”
Fullerton finished with 12 points. Brunnert scored seven, Duncan had four, Peters had three, senior Karley Crowe scored three and seniors Sierrah Negrette and Riley Kabance each had two.
Koons led the Wildcats with 14 points and Kania Sparks added 12.
Carthage will face eighth seed Joplin at 7:30 p.m. Thursday in the auxiliary gym. The Eagles lost 94-15 to top-seeded Strafford on Monday. Strafford and Har-Ber will meet at 6 p.m. Thursday in the main gym.
West Plains, the third seed, beat sixth seed Lamar 50-24 in another first-round game. West Plains will play the winner of Mount Vernon and Hillcrest at 6 p.m. Thursday in the main gym int he other championship semifinal. Lamar and the loser will play at 7:30 p.m. Thursday in the auxiliary gym.
Joplin 76, Carthage 41
Unfortunately for the Carthage football team, the season came to an end on Saturday in the Class 5 semifinals.
Unfortunately for the Carthage boys basketball team, the football season didn’t end until Saturday.
The Tigers were without six players who just joined the team this week after football season. They watched from the end of the bench.
Joplin, which saw its football season end a week earlier, was able to dress out five seniors and eight juniors. The top-seeded Eagles scored – and substituted – at will in Tuesday’s first-round game.
Joplin led 16-7 after a quarter and 40-20 at halftime, led by a dozen points from junior Evan Guillory. Ten different Eagles scored in the first half alone.
There were some Carthage highlights. Junior Taris Jackson had three big blocks in the game and dunked the ball with 1:09 left in the first quarter to make it a 14-7 game.
Senior Christian Talamantez, sophomore Morgan Frisinger and Jackson made three pointers in the first half.
But Joplin’s depth and athleticism was too much. Freshman Always Wright, the only ninth grader on the roster, made three three pointers in the third quarter. Joplin junior Zach Westmoreland capped a steal and a breakaway with a two-handed dunk early in the fourth quarter. The Tigers managed just three free throws in the final eight minutes, which went by faster with a running clock.
“They’re very good,” Carthage coach Steve Ray said. “We knew we were going to have our hands full. Give coach (Jeff) Hafer and his guys all the credit. They played really well. I’m disappointed in how we played. I don’t think we ever felt comfortable in the game and it showed. They did a good job of keeping us uncomfortable all 32 minutes.”
As for the newcomers to the roster, Ray said the football players will have their first basketball practice on Wednesday.
“We’ll just kind of see,” he said. “I wish it was as simple as giving everybody a certain time frame but the fact is most of these guys have not played a meaningful minute of basketball since June. It’s not always an ideal situation but it’s our situation. Nobody wants to hear us be sorry for ourselves. We’ll come back and try to figure it out.”
Jackson led Carthage with 12 points. Frisinger scored eight, senior Ian O’Malley added six, Talamantez and freshman Joel Pugh each scored five, sophomore Sam Fuert scored three and sophomore Brandon Gacke scored two.
Joplin had three players in double figures. Junior Andreis Gaines and Guillory each scored 14 and Wright finished with 11.
Carthage will face fifth seed Belton at 6 p.m. Friday in the auxiliary gym. Belton lost 63-37 to fourth seed West Plains on Monday.
In other first-round action, second seed Nevada won 57-52 over seventh seed Neosho. Third seed Rogers won 51-35 over sixth seed Seneca. Those two winners will play at 7:30 p.m. Thursday in the main gym; the losers play at 6 p.m. Thursday in the auxiliary gym. Joplin and West plains play at 7:30 p.m. Friday in the main gym.
