Worth County's boys broke out of their losing streak with a vengance as they beat North Andrew 56-37 in consolation bracket action in the Stanberry Tournament Wednesday. The Tigers beat a North Andrew team that had only one win, a 62-43 blowout of North Nodaway after the first of the year. However, the Cardinals had played all of their other teams tough, with their biggest margin of defeat before Wednesday night being 13 points. The Cardinals had a post player in Josh Pittman who was a handful to guard; he has been the dominant scorer for the North Andrew squad. However, the Tigers held him to four points in the first half of Wednesday's encounter, and he did not get going until it was too late.
The outcome of this game was never in doubt as the Tigers jumped on North Andrew early. The play of Bryce Ross was key in the game as the Tiger freshman had a career high of 23 points; the Tigers were constantly working the ball to him in the short corner of the North Andrew zone, and he was hitting all of his shots. And the Tigers collected a ton of turnovers from North Andrew as they followed the lead of Northeast Nodaway's girls in putting extreme pressure on the ball all over the court, forcing 35 Cardinal turnovers throughout the course of the game. And it helped that North Andrew missed a ton of easy shots around the basket, which amounted to even more turnovers for the Cardinal squad.
Worth County jumped on North Andrew 8-0 in the first three minutes of the game as Zach Harmening scored from inside and Bryce Ross scored off an Alex Harmening steal. After Zach Harmening took a charge for Worth County, J.J. Mullock scored one over Pittman and Eli Mullock collected a steal and drive. Pittman finally hit a pair of free throws at the 3:49 mark to break the shutout, but Zach Harmening drove down the right side of the lane and put a nice fake on a defender for the layup. Todd Harding followed with another drive and got a high-arching shot to go down over Pittman. Bryce Ross followed with a drive to put Worth County up 14-2 after one quarter of play.
Ross continued to carry the Tigers at the start of the second as he slipped into the short corner for an 8-footer and then took a charge on the next play. Zach Harmening followed with a steal, which he converted into a free throw; Jordan Harding hit two free throws and Alex Harmening hit one as Worth County led 20-2 at the 4:30 mark. North Andrew hung around for the rest of the half as Worth County was constantly hacking and fouling trying to keep the ball out of Pittman's hands and they were missing a ton of free throws when they went to the line. The teams traded buckets for the rest of the half, when Worth County went into the lockerroom with a 27-9 lead.
Pittman hit a pair of free throws to start the second half, but then Dylan Kinsella connected from the left baseline to start a 13-0 run for Worth County. Bryce Ross got behind the Cardinal defense following a miss, Todd Harding hit from the top of the key, Ross completed a 3-point play following a take to the basket, Zach Harmening scored off a Ross steal, and Ross slipped the zone for a baseline shot to put Worth County up 40-11 with 3:56 left in the third. At that point the Cardinals switched to a man to man and the referees, seemingly trying to make their quota of fouls called for the game, began calling everything for both sides, dragging the game out for what seemed like all night. Consequently, the game developed into a snoozefest, which favored North Andrew. Pittman had five points and Drew Beggs three in an 8-1 North Andrew run that cut Worth County's lead to 41-19 at the 7:21 mark of the fourth quarter. Pittman then connected from inside at the 6:19 mark to cut Worth County's lead to 43-23.
Worth County took back control as Bryce Ross scored from the right side and Todd Harding hit a 3-pointer from the wing to make it 48-23. Pittman kept scoring, but Dylan Kinsella scored inside and Todd Harding finally got a pair of free throws to go down for Worth County, putting the game out of reach at 52-26 with 4:01 left. North Andrew reeled off an 11-0 run in garbage time, most of it from the line, before Worth County answered at the end with a pair of free throws from Ross and a drive by Todd Harding in the last minute.
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