Worth County’s boys delivered one of the most thorough beatdowns of a Maryville squad in the Northeast Nodaway Junior High Tournament in recent memory, outplaying them and winning 47-24. The Tigers had much of their nucleus back from last year’s one-loss squad that dropped the tournament title game to Maryville on the same floor. The question was, who would stop them? King City had everybody back from last year’s squad that played the Tigers tough towards the end of the year and then some, but it didn’t matter as the Tigers won by 32. St. Gregory’s was supposed to be another challenge, and the Falcons held down Bo Collins as well as anyone has the last two years, but Ethan Lininger went off and the Tigers locked down defensively in another big win.
Maryville was supposed to be different; they had a skyscraper in Mace McKim who made Bo Collins look like one of the Harmening brothers. They had another skyscraper in Jackson Wilmes who had guard skills and could light it up. They had another skyscraper in Tyson Atwell who could bang with anyone while backing up McKim and Wilmes. They had guards who could handle the ball and who knew how to play the game. It didn’t matter as the Tigers were able to pull away in the second quarter, withstand a Maryville charge in the third, and pull away again in the fourth.
Worth County started off fast. After McKim knotted it at 2-2, Ethan Lininger converted a second chance possession into a baseline shot, Bo Collins scored from inside, Caleb New got loose on the baseline after Bo pushed one up the floor, and Caleb got a free throw after a Collins tip and steal.
But then Maryville started hanging around, starting with a Lucas Zieglar 3-pointer and a Mace McKim putback to make it 9-7 early in the second. Bo picked up his second foul in the period, and Maryville continued to hang around, getting an inside shot from McKim with 2:36 left in the second to make it 14-11.
The question was how the Tigers would react when forced to play four quarters; all of their wins until Saturday’s game had been of the running clock variety. But then Bo responded by playing one of his finest outings as a Tiger; he was all over the floor, jumping passes, flying to the glass, and pushing the ball ahead to his teammates; he was among the leaders in boards, steals, and assists that night. Cole Ruby had a big quarter down the stretch, starting with a 3-pointer that made it 17-11. Caleb New got it into Bo Collins, Caleb scored a pair of free throws off a drive, Hayden Sanders hit Bo inside, and then Caleb New and Cole Ruby hit back to back 3’s to put the Tigers up 29-11.
But it was only a matter of time before Maryville’s run came, and it started at the beginning of the third quarter as they scored the first five points to cut it to 29-16. Bo Collins picked up his third foul in the period and Caleb New was shaken up at one point and had to come out, but Collins hit two free throws and then stole the ball and fed Cole Ruby to stop the bleeding. By the end of the third quarter, the Tigers, behind balanced scoring, had built it back up to 39-18.
Maryville made another charge to start the fourth quarter as a drive from Jackson Dredge cut it to 40-24, but then Caleb New kicked one out to Hayden Sanders for a 3-pointer to break the run. Bo Collins got a putback and Caleb New hit two free throws at the end to seal the win for the Tigers.
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