Sunday, November 11, 2018

Aydan Blackford Leads JH Mustangs Past Tigers

Worth County’s junior high boys completely outplayed North Nodaway on the floor, but it was North Nodaway who somehow came away with the 32-29 victory Tuesday night. For Worth County, Tyler New had 17 steals, and North Nodaway turned the ball over 31 times, while Worth County only surrendered the ball 10 times.

Both sides have found wins hard to come by this year, although North Nodaway has been showing improvement; last year, they were winless, while they came into Tuesday’s game with one win under their belts. Worth County was also sitting at one lone win this year.

But North Nodaway took the lead and held it for nearly the whole game, although Worth County was always close. Tyler New’s free throw gave Worth County its only lead of the game at 3-2 at the 4:45 mark of the first, but then Peyton Kreps hit a triple and another shot to make it 7-3. Aydan Blackford started driving to the hole at will against Worth County, getting six of his 17 points, and Damian Dailey hit an inside shot as North Nodaway led 13-9 after one quarter.

Jeremiah Dobbins’ three point play put the Mustangs in front as much as 18-9 before Worth County started coming back. Tyler New scored off a steal, Elias Alarcon added a baseline three, and Levi Cassavaugh scored a three off a Tyler New steal as Worth County closed to within 20-17 at the break.
Levi Cassavaugh started the scoring off with a drive to make it 20-19 to start the third, but then Aydan Blackford started going to the rack again at will, scoring six straight points to put the Mustangs out of danger again at 26-19. Damian Dailey’s free throw with 3.1 seconds left made it 29-21.

But then Tanner Ridge took a charge on Blackford to start the fourth, and the momentum started swinging back in Worth County’s favor as Elias Alarcon hit a shot from the right baseline after Levi Cassavaugh kept a possession alive with an offensive board, Tyler New scored off a drive down the left baseline, and New got a steal off the press and got it to Cassavaugh to make it 29-27 with 4:18 left. Worth County only had two fouls at that point, which meant they could afford to be very aggressive on defense.

The score was stuck at 29-27 until Aydan Blackford got it into Jeremiah Dobbins to make it two possessions at 31-27 with 1:59 left. Tyler New got a steal off the press to cut it to 31-29 with 1:20 left, but following an Elias Alarcon steal off the press, New missed both free throws with one minute left. New got yet another steal off the press, but Levi Cassavaugh’s three for the lead missed and went out of bounds giving the ball back to North Nodaway.

This time, North Nodaway beat the press and Tyler New fouled Blackford on a breakaway attempt, and Blackford hit one of two with 40 seconds left to make it 32-29. Tyler New got a good look at a tying three with 16 seconds, but it went in and out. North Nodaway threw the ball away against the press, and Worth County had one last chance. But the Tigers could not get a three off and Tyler New’s runner was off. Tanner Ridge was fouled on the offensive board with 0.5 seconds left, and he missed the first and committed a violation on the second try. North Nodaway successfully inbounded it to run out the clock.

For North Nodaway, Aydan Blackford had 17, while Peyton Kreps, Jeremiah Dobbins, and Damian Dailey all had 5.

The Mustangs had a ton of blocks as Worth County kept trying to get to the rim, only to be turned away time and time again by the taller North Nodaway players. Damian Dailey had 4 blocks, while Aydan Blackford had 3 and Darron Bix had 1.

For North Nodaway, Damian Dailey had 9 boards, Aydan Blackford 7, Jeremiah Dobbins and Darron Bix 5, Peyton Kreps 3, and Kade Emery and Andrew Wray 1 each.

Darron Bix had 3 assists. Damian Dailey, Kade Emery, Peyton Kreps, and Aydan Blackford all had 1.

Darron Bix, Peyton Kreps, Aydan Blackford, and Damian Dailey all had 2 tips, while Brice Trimble and Jeremiah Dobbins had 1.

Kade Emery had 2 steals, while Damian Dailey, Peyton Kreps, and Darron Bix had 1.

For Worth County, Tyler New and Levi Cassavaugh had 11 points each. Elias Alarcon had 5, while Tanner Ridge had 2.

John Galanakis had 1 block for Worth County.

John Galanakis had 7 boards for the Tigers. Tyler New had 6, Tanner Ridge 5, Levi Cassavaugh 3, and Elias Alarcon and Jase Latham 1 each.

Tyler New had 3 assists for Worth County, while Tanner Ridge had 2 and Elias Alarcon and Levi Cassavaugh had 1 each.

Tyler New had 7 tips for Worth County. Levi Cassavaugh had 6, Tanner Ridge 3, John Galanakis and Elias Alarcon 2, and Tuker Riley 1.

Tyler New had 17 steals for Worth County. Levi Cassavaugh had 5, Tanner Ridge and Elias Alarcon had 3 each, and Tuker Riley had 1.

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