Mustangs Beat Worth County Twice, Claim Third Place

Worth County led the whole way, but North Nodaway came back in the fourth quarter and won 28-23 to beat Worth County for the second time this year. The win got them the third place trophy in the NEN Tournament.

The focus was on which team could better recover from devastating losses in the semifinals. Worth County had been blasted 53-22 by Avenue City, while North Nodaway had been beaten in similar fashion by Maryville. Tanner Parman's putback for Worth County put them up 6-2 with 1:43 left in the first quarter, but Jake Shipman's Mustangs were never far behind, always going to the basket and rarely attempting an outside shot. Karson Oberhauser hit a pair of outside shots and Dalton Smyser had one; those were the only points the Mustangs scored that were outside the paint.

The deficit for North Nodaway was always between 1 and 4 points until the fourth quarter, when Jaxon Anderson's inside shot with 4:14 left put Worth County up 22-16. Ryan Riley's drive cut it to four, but Tanner Parman took on two defenders to make it 23-20. But then the littlest player on the court, Andrew Blackford, came up with a putback that seemed to spark the Mustangs. Austin Bird's free throw made it 23-21 with 3:06 left, and Worth County went into stall mode after that.

But then North Nodaway was able to extend its pressure and force a back court violation, and Karson Oberhauser made one of his two outside shots with 1:40 left to tie it at 23. Worth County missed two chances to go back in front and then North Nodaway worked the ball inside to Austin Bird after Tyler Bix had driven the lane and Worth County had collapsed to help. That put them up 25-23 with 50 seconds left. Worth County missed another shot and the ball went out off the Tigers, and Bix hit two free throws to put the game away.

Jaxon Anderson led the scoring for Worth County with 10 points. Tanner Parman had 9 and Ethan Thomas 4.

For North Nodaway, Tyler Bix had 9 to lead the team. Austin Bird had 6, Karson Oberhauser 5, and Dalton Smyser, Logan Keho, Andrew Blackford, and Ryan Riley each had 2.