The Carthage Lady Tiger Varsity Basketball Team fell to the Carl Junction Bulldogs in their Central Ozark Conference opener 48-53 Tuesday, Jan. 11 at home.
“This was a good battle to start the COC season,” Carthage Coach Scott Moore said. “CJ will be a team we are contending with for conference rankings. We will learn from this and be better on Friday.”
Carthage was tied with CJ 10-10 after the first quarter and took the lead in the second quarter 22-21 going into the half. Both teams battled back and forth in the third quarter, and the Tigers once again found themselves tied 32-32 going into the decisive fourth quarter. Carl Junction was able to capitalize on turnovers and missed shots by Carthage to pull away late.
“We had a couple of scoring lulls in the game and we can’t afford those,” noted Moore. “We overcame the one to start the second quarter, but the fourth quarter one proved too long and too deep for us to dig out of.
“We made a flurry of shots in the final minute to give us a chance if we just had one or two more possessions,” added Moore.
Senior Kianna Yates led the Tigers in scoring with 20 points followed by Lauren Choate with 15 points. Maggie Boyd finished with 6 points on two 3-pointers and Sophie Shannon added 4 points. Raven Probert added a 3-pointer to round out the scoring for Carthage. Thirty of the Tigers’ 48 points came from behind the 3-point line.
The Lady Tigers are now 6-8 overall on the season, 0-1 in COC. They host the Nixa Eagles on Friday.
