PITTSBURG, Kan. — The Carthage Lady Tigers traveled to Pittsburg this week to compete in the Bill Hanson Memorial Tournament.
Carthage faced Blue Valley Northwest in the first round Thursday, Jan. 19. Facing off against a team that started four girls 5’11” or taller, the Tigers had a 26-21 lead at halftime, but a big third quarter offensive run by Blue Valley allowed them to take the lead and hand the Tigers a 58-51 loss.
“Blue Valley got hot in the third quarter and utilized their immense size advantage to outscore us 22-10,” Coach Scott Moore said. “However, that means we won the other three quarters of the game. That’s been our Achilles Heel this season. One subpar quarter.”
“(I’m) really proud of how our girls battled tonight,” added Moore. “They poured their hearts out on the court and didn’t let Blue Valley’s size affect our effort.”
Lauren Choate hit four threes on the night en route to a game-high 22 points. Kianna Yates finished with 17 points, followed by five points from Lexa Youngblood, four points from Jaidyn Brunnert, two points from Zye Clark and one point from Maggie Boyd.
In second round action, the Lady Tigers faced host team Pittsburg. Carthage jumped out to a 22-11 lead after the first quarter and never looked back in a 70-31 win.
“I’m extremely proud of how we played tonight,” Moore said. “We dominated for four quarters and played one of our best games yet.”
All nine Tigers contributed to the score with four finishing in double digits. Kianna Yates matched her game one point total of 17 to lead all scorers. Lauren Choate chipped in with 13 points, followed by Maggie Boyd with 11. Landry Cochran added 10 points. Lexa Youngblood finished with six points while Zye Clark and Jaidyn Brunnert added four points a piece. Trisha Kanas scored three points and Ashlyn Brust finished with two points for the Tigers.
“All nine girls scored and all nine played with energy for 32 minutes. That’s exactly what we asked them to do in our pre-game talk,” added Moore. “Pittsburg played hard the whole game and forced us to play our best at all times. They are getting better each game and so are we.”
The Lady Tigers are 8-7 on the year and play the winner of Olathe North and Webster Groves at 1 pm Saturday in the fifth place game.
