Worth County’s boys stumbled in the first round of the Stanberry Tournament before recovering to beat Albany and Mound City to win consolation.
In their first game, they fell 68-60 to South Nodaway as they could not stop Dalton Warner on defense or figure out how to put a ball in the basket on the other end. They got off to a hot start in the first quarter, putting up 21 points as they took a 21-16 lead. But from there, the shots started to clank off the rim, nobody had an answer for the lightning quick Longhorn guard, and the lead slowly evaporated away. Worth County was 4 for 31 from behind the 3-point line and 14 for 32 from the free throw line that night.
Worth County’s lead evaporated by halftime as they found themselves trailing 36-31 after a 20-point second quarter by South Nodaway. They had some initial success coming out in their half court trap look, betting to within 40-36 off Cade Allee’s putback with 4:35 left and 42-39 off Mason Hawk’s putback with 3:17 left. But then Taylar Freemyer got loose for the Longhorns twice inside and Warner picked up his eighth point of the period to make it 48-39, prompting Tiger Coach Bryce Schafer to break out the Chinese Fire Drill, putting five in and five out.
Nothing worked at first as shots continued to clank off the rim and Worth County’s deficit grew to 13 early in the fourth at 56-43. Finally, they rode Drake Kinsella’s back as the Tigers managed to stop the bleeding by getting to the line, although they made it hard for themselves by missing a ton of free throws. Worth County finally managed to pick things up defensively and get a pair of steals; Caleb Parman scored off a Ryan McClellan steal with 2:13 left to cut the deficit to four at 61-57. But then Worth County let Warner get loose once too often and then they had to start fouling.
Worth County got nine players in the scoring column, but they had nobody to match Warner’s output for South Nodaway. Cade Allee led the scoring with 11 points, Brevyn Ross and Drake Kinsella had 9, Ben Badell had his best game of the season with 7 points, Drake Simmons had 7, Mason Hawk had 6, Caleb Parman 5, Isaac Alarcon 4, and Ryan McClellan 2.
Dalton Warner had 28 for South Nodaway. One of the big reasons for Worth County’s losses this year has been their inability to stop someone on the other team from going off. Against North Andrew, for instance, it was Ryan Hughes who went off on them. Against Jefferson, it was Caden Farnan. Picking up more wins will require them to figure out how to stop someone from going off on them.
Worth County recovered and won the Consolation Prize by playing much better defense in its last two games. Against Albany, the game was close all the way before Worth County won 49-47. The game started out as a high-scoring track meet as Worth County led 19-17 after one quarter. However, the defenses took over after that and it turned into a grind it out defensive struggle. With the game tied in the last minute, Isaac Alarcon stole the ball from Seth Cline and scored on the other end to give Worth County the lead for good.
Cade Allee led the scoring for Worth County with 18 points. Drake Simmons and Isaac Alarcon each had 7. Ryan McClellan had 5, Drake Kinsella had 4, Brevyn Ross had 3 along with Caleb Parman and Mason Hawk had 2. Cade Allee had two 3-pointers for the Tigers while Ryan McClellan, Caleb Parman, and Drake Simmons all had 1. While Cline had 23 points for Albany and Nathan McClain 14, nobody else went off for them.
Worth County had not beaten Mound City in over a decade, and Jaden Gillenwater did all he could to ensure that would continue, putting up 26 points. But Worth County took a 20-14 lead after one quarter and made it stand up, winning 62-57 over the Panthers to secure consolation. Bryce Schafer had been looking all year for a go-to player, and may have just found one in Cade Allee, who went off on the Panthers with 23 points, matching a career high. He knocked down three shots from bonus distance as Worth County had seven triples for the night.
Besides Allee, Brevyn Ross and Isaac Alarcon each had 9 points; Isaac’s output was a career high. Drake Kinsella and Ben Badell each had 7, Ryan McClellan had 5, and Mason Hawk had 2. Badell, Ross, McClellan, and Kinsella all had one 3-pointer for the Tigers. Worth County was 9 for 15 from the free throw line.
When the Tigers took second at Stanberry earlier in the year, it was their first trophy of any kind in four years as well as the first in Bryce Schafer’s tenure. The last trophy they had won was in the 2011-2012 season, when they took consolation at Stanberry that year after getting a last-second shot from Eli Mullock to beat South Nodaway. It was the first trophy ever for the seniors. The 2011-2012 season was also the last time Worth County had won multiple trophies in the same year; they had won third place at Albany earlier that year after beating archrival Albany.
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