Worth County’s boys saw their season come to an end Saturday when a frantic 26-point rally in the fourth quarter fell short and they fell 58-51 to Rock Port in the District Finals. The goal is to come back with a chip on their shoulder next year and never let an opponent celebrate on their home floor again.
The teams went toe to toe in the first half, playing to a 22-22 standoff until Rock Port inbounded it to 6’6” Reid Ellis, who converted a three-point play to put Rock Port in front 25-22 at the half. That play turned out to be a momentum-killer for the Tigers as Rock Port proceeded to score the first 17 points of the third quarter. Worth County would jack up quick shots, miss them, and then give up easy shots at the other end. A full-scale massacre similar to the Platte Valley game of two years ago, where the Tigers lost by 50 in district finals, seemed to be in the cards as Worth County trailed 42-22 at one point.
But after cutting it to 42-25 after three, a different Tiger team took the floor for the fourth quarter. Similar to the Mount Ayr game, in which they nearly overcame impossible odds, they put together a 26-point fourth quarter as Brock Healy got them going with four triples in the first four minutes. Worth County was finally getting results by swarming and pressing Rock Port. But the Blue Jays kept feeding Ellis to break the press and maintain a 56-41 lead with 58 seconds left.
But Brock Holmes fouled Caleb New fighting for a loose ball for his fifth foul and shoved Caleb after the play was over, drawing a technical foul. Caleb New converted three out of four free throws and the Tigers cashed in on the free possession to make it 56-46. Cole Ruby hit a 3-pointer and Caleb New slashed and scored to make it 58-51 before Rock Port was able to hold it out of bounds for the final few seconds as Worth County was out of timeouts.
Caleb New had 20 for the Tigers and Brock Healy 18.
Worth County had nine players who earned spots in Coach Les New’s rotation. They only lose Brayden Combs, while Hayden Sanders, Caleb New, Brock Healy, Jordan Dannar, Ethan Lininger, Ryder Smyser, Cole Ruby, and Dylan Smith return.
Bo Collins, if he comes back out, will provide some needed size along with Smyser and Lininger. He spent the last two seasons nursing football injuries. They will add a big freshman class with stalwarts such as Cole Hardy, Jarrett Gilland, Weston Hill, Silas Brown, Gunnar Smith, and Hudson Cameron waiting in the wings.
The Tigers will seek to add more scoring threats; Caleb New finally showed what he was capable of doing when healthy, while Brock Healy established himself as one of the top freshmen in the conference. They were showing signs of adding more balance down the stretch when they finally started winning.
But Rock Port will return most of their players as well. They only lose Tayden Cook, while defensive stoppers Westyn Amthor and Logan Ellis along with scoring threats Jack Meyerkorth, Brock Holmes, and skyscraper Reid Ellis return.
When Worth County hit the floor on December 8th, just a few days after winning the State Football Championship, they started off by falling behind 4-0 against North Nodaway. But the rest of the game was all Tigers as they ran away with a 55-20 win. They picked up right where they left off in football as they beat Northeast Nodaway 68-37, GRC West contender King City 42-40 in overtime, and held off a frantic Albany rally to win 41-31. They suffered their first loss, 75-72 to Mount Ayr, only to beat 24-win Braymer 42-36 in Trenton.
Worth County was scrambling to find games since they missed two full weeks of basketball thanks to it overlapping with football. They found a game with Maryville and went toe to toe with the Spoofhounds before falling 70-57. But sometimes, so-called “moral victories” can snowball into a long slump, and that’s what happened.
Worth County proceeded to drop their next game to North Andrew, won a squeaker over 9-17 Stanberry and had an injury scare as Caleb New got two teeth knocked loose, recovered with a solid win over NEN, but proceeded to struggle to close out games, falling to North Andrew and Platte Valley.
The Tigers hit a low point with a 61-35 loss to state-ranked Princeton, beat North Harrison 71-40, but continued to struggle in close games, falling by nine to Rock Port, five to Nodaway Valley, and three to Pattonsburg.
But despite battling sickness down the stretch, the Tigers used the Pattonsburg loss as a wake-up call and proceeded to win their next six, holding each opponent to 49 points or less. They won a solid game at St. Joseph Christian, held off a frantic rally to beat Mound City 55-41, got a 40-point effort from Caleb New in a 51-45 win over LeBlond, and finally showed the kind of balance they needed to be effective in a 71-49 win over South Holt.
Their best two games of the year were their 58-37 win over 17-win East Atchison and a 66-36 revenge win over Platte Valley. They struggled in a tough environment at Maysville against a solid team, but recovered to beat North Nodaway and got a 42-point outburst from Caleb New to survive an overtime scare against Platte Valley.
The Tigers nearly doubled their win total of last year, in which everything that could have went wrong did go wrong for them. They finished the year at 16-11.
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