In a dismal finale for Worth County's boys, they lost to the Nodaway-Holt Trojans in their final regular season home game of the year 60-43. Northeast Nodaway's five point loss to the same team earlier in the year all of a sudden did not seem so bad after the way that the Trojans manhandled the Tigers Friday night. Seemingly demoralized after their heartbreaking one-point loss to Princeton, the Tiger boys limp into districts having lost five out of their last six, most of them blowout losses in games that were winnable on paper. Playing in their last home game of the year were Jonny Hughes and Kyler Hiatt, both of whom will be tough to replace next year.
The game was essentially over after the first quarter. Michael Brown ran wild for the Trojans in the period, scoring the first nine points of the game off steals and 3-pointers; he would go on to score 14 in the period as Nodaway-Holt hung 21 on Worth County and led 21-10. Jonny Hughes tried to keep up, scoring six of Worth County's first eight points off a drive, a baseline jumper, and a backdoor cut off an Eli Mullock drive. However, nobody else wanted the ball as passes were going through peoples' hands. And when Kyler Hiatt went to the bench with two fouls late in the first quarter, the Tigers fell apart, settling for quick 3's rather than trying to get a good shot.
Zach Harmening took a charge early in the second quarter, which seemed to make the Trojans think twice about going to the rim for a while and slowing them down. But Worth County could not take advantage of their lull as Hiatt picked up his third foul, balls continued to go through peoples' hands, and the Tigers could only muster six points. Rather than being down by single digits and having a chance to make a game of it in the third period, Worth County still trailed by 11 at the half, 27-16.
Hughes scored a driving layup to cut it to nine and Brown picked up his fourth foul for the Trojans, but once again, Worth County failed to take advantage of their chance to get back in the game. Easy shots went in and out, players began showing frustration and not getting back on defense, and they were doing too much dribbling without a purpose on offense. Consequently, Nodaway-Holt made a 12-0 run, mostly with Brown on the bench, to lead 39-18 before Hughes broke the run with a shot from the right wing. But a 7-0 Nodaway-Holt run late in the third and early in the fourth was capped when Carson Long snatched an offensive board from three Tigers players who were standing and staring at the ball and put it back in at the 7:00 mark.
Worth County finally got a mild rally going as free throws from Todd Harding and a Jonny Hughes 3-pointer and a free throw made the score more respectable at 52-36. But Hughes fouled out and Brown came back off the bench to hit free throws down the stretch for Nodaway-Holt.
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