Carthage 46, Cabot 58
Thursday, Dec. 30, 2021
An early 21-4 deficit against Cabot proved to be too much for the Carthage Lady Tigers during the third place game at the Pink & White Invitational Thursday, Dec. 30, 2021 in Springfield.
“Dead legs dug us a hole to start the game, but these girls are fighters and came out on fire in the second half,” said Carthage Head Coach Scott Moore. “We challenged them at halftime to come out, play hard and let it fly — and they did just that.”
Carthage battled back in the third, outscoring Cabot 17-9 sparked by two 3-pointers from Kianna Yates, and threes from Lauren Choate and Trisha Kanas. The Tigers continued to ramp it up in the fourth quarter climbing back to within 8 points, but fell short at the end of regulation.
“Nobody in this tournament has had to play four tough games like we just did,” said Moore. “I’m so incredibly proud of these kids for how hard they have played this week. In fact, the tournament committee awarded us the Sportsmanship Award for how hard we played. We impressed everyone in the arena with our brand of basketball over the course of the tourney. That’s ‘The Lady Tiger Way,'” Moore added.
Yates finished with 21 points, Choate added 8 points, Sophie Shannon had 7 points, Maggie Boyd added 4, and Kanas and Landry Cochran finished with 3 points apiece.
“Kianna Yates averaged 22 points per game for us this week against amazing competition. She’s such an exceptional player who always leads the charge for us and the rest of the team follows her energy and passion for the game,” said Moore.
“However, we are more than just one player. Lauren Choate, Maggie Boyd, Landry Cochran, Sophie Shannon, Daniela Marquez and Trisha Kanas gave us every ounce of energy they had,” added Moore. “We press for 32 minutes and we need each of those girls to give their best effort for us to be successful. Because they did, we had an amazing run and they should be so proud of themselves!”
Carthage 39, Republic 55
Wednesday, Dec. 29, 2021
The Lady Tigers fell to the Republic Tigers in the semifinal matchup Wednesday that sent them to the third place game against the Cabot Panthers.
“We battled a tough District opponent for the third day in a row for 32 minutes,” said Carthage Head Coach Scott Moore. “The only difference between today and the past two days is that our shots didn’t fall as much on the offensive end.”
Kianna Yates was all over the floor with a game high 20 points.
“She probably had a double-double as well because she was all over the offensive boards,” added Moore.
Lauren Choate, Maggie Boyd and Sophie Shannon added 5 points each while Landry Cochran and Daniel Marquez finished with 2 points apiece.
“We coaches are incredibly impressed by our effort and energy on both ends of the court,” added Moore. “The girls have really raised the bar for themselves this week and I look forward to coaching this team every game we play.
“We are such a young team, that we are constantly learning on the fly. The players have been great listening to the coaches and executing the game plan on both ends of the floor. They are really fun to coach. Sometimes I just step back and enjoy watching them play ball.”
The Lady Tigers (5-6) are back in action at home Tuesday, Jan. 4, 2022 against the Strafford Indians. Junior Varsity tips off at 6 p.m. with the Varsity game to follow.
