Worth County's boys played their best game of the year in winning the rematch, 59-40 against West Nodaway. The Tigers had dropped a 58-50 decision in West Nodaway a week earlier, but they unexpectedly got Bryce Ross back for the game as he healed up quicker than expected for the game; he did not start, but he provided some valuable minutes for the Tigers. In the previous game, they were victimized by hacking and fouling, which led to two players fouling out and a lopsided free throw differential. But they were able to avoid the hacking and fouling that plagued them the first time out. And the Tigers were able to hit from the field as opposed to the first game, in which Todd Harding was the only player to put the ball in the basket consistently the first time. Consequently, it turned into yet another one of those games in which the other team was shaking their heads in disbelief over losing to the squirts from Worth County.
The early part of the game was slow and to West Nodaway's liking as they were able to milk the clock for long possessions. They were able to get 3-pointers from Brandon Whittington and Kolby Marriott while the Tigers could not find the range for the first four minutes. But finally, the Tigers were able to get a drive and floater from Alex Harmening with 4:19 left in the first to break the ice. Eli Mullock drove for a layup and then West Nodaway all of a sudden struggled to get the ball inbounds, throwing away consecutive inbounds passes for layups in a span of a few seconds. Brian Hall and Todd Harding were the beneficiaries of that; the Tigers got another gift with 45 seconds left when they stripped the ball out of the post, West Nodaway did not get back on defense, and Eli Mullock went coast to coast to make it 10-6 after one quarter.
Kolby Marriott hit a 3-pointer from the top of the key to make it 10-9, but then all of a sudden, the squirts from Worth County were pressing, trapping, hounding, and stealing the ball and playing the game at their chaotic pace; they made a lot of mistakes, but they made a lot more great plays to take control of the game. Jordan Harding scored off a Todd Harding steal; then, Eli Mullock saved a ball from going out of bounds to Alex Harmening, who put it in over defenders several inches taller. Alex Harmening then slapped another loose ball to Todd Harding for another layup and then Harding scored off a steal to make it 19-9 with 6:09 left.
Worth County made a momentum-killing mistake as they hammered Marriott on a 3-pointer and he knocked down all three 3-pointers to make it 21-14. The teams traded buckets until Landon Wood threw up a running 3-pointer at the buzzer well behind the line that made it 25-20 at the break. But West Nodaway failed to take advantage of the potential momentum shift as the squirts from Worth County continued to swarm, attack, and play hard at the start of the third. Eli Mullock drove and threw it into Jordan Harding for a backdoor layup to start the scoring; Todd Harding then scored off a steal, Alex Harmening scored from the right baseline off an Eli Mullock drive, and then Todd Harding pushed it up the floor following a Rocket miss and threw it to Alex, whose high-arching shot from the left baseline was nothing but net.
West Nodaway began finding the range and hitting again, but then Bryce Ross came off the bench and scored eight points in a row to deny them a comeback bid. He scored off a steal, got loose on a high-low from Brian Hall, scored off an inbounds play from Wyatt McClain, and posted up and got another pass from Wyatt. That meant that Worth County still had a 43-32 lead early in the fourth.
Ross' efforts meant Worth County could take control once West Nodaway had cooled off. Eli Mullock scored off a fast break, Jordan Harding slipped behind the defense as nobody got back, Alex Harmening scored off a drive, Brian Hall sealed a taller defender twice and converted it into a bucket and a free throw, and Eli Mullock hit a pair of free throws after Wyatt McClain had taken a charge on defense to make it 54-32 with 3:35 left. West Nodaway made a late run to make it 56-40, but then the JV looked sharp when they took the floor, getting two free throws from Lane Craven and one from Grant Parman in the closing seconds.
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