Fourth quarter drama: Neosho falls behind, then rallies, against Van Buren
Dec. 29—NEOSHO, Mo. — The first three quarters of Neosho's girls basketball game against Van Buren, Arkansas, seemed routine, as the teams battled hard and traded the lead. Neither team was able to create any more than three points separation from the other, but all that changed in the final frame of Wednesday's 52-48 Lady Wildcat win over the Lady Pointers in the 2022 Neosho Holiday Classic.
Neosho (6-4) built the largest lead either team had managed at 33-29 with 26 seconds left in the third quarter before Van Buren's Caylee Barbour caught lightning in a bottle with three straight 3-pointers in 1:55 to push Van Buren to a 5-point lead with 6:13 left in the fourth quarter.
The lead grew to 48-37 with just 3:12 left in the game as Van Buren went on a 19-4 run from the end of the third quarter to midway through the fourth.
Then Neosho poured on the defense, holding the Lady Pointers scoreless for the rest of the game and scoring 15 points of their own to steal the game and advance in the six-team girls bracket of the tournament.
Neosho head coach Daniel Durst said this was a big win for his team.
"What we have been harping on them all season is this: When it starts to get tough, we fold up and lay down and then it's over," Durst said. "We had a time out with three minutes and some left and I had this conversation with them. I said this is exactly what we fight against all the time, which is laying down and rolling over. Now you've got to stand up and play hard, it's got to be the hardest three minutes of defense you've ever played, and they responded. That's what took the game."
Neosho senior Reagan McInturff helped key the rally with 8 of her 13 points in the fourth quarter, including the 3-pointer that put the Wildcats up 49-48 on Van Buren with one minute left in the game. She also hit one of two free throws to push the lead to two possessions at 52-48 with only 6.7 seconds left in the game.
Lady Wildcats senior Karlee Ellick lead all scorers with 17 points in the game, including three free throws in that final frame.
Sophomore Beclynn Garrett had all 11 of her points in the second half, including 5 points in that fourth quarter.
Van Buren coach Michael Kinney said he didn't feel comfortable even when his team held that 11-point lead with a little more than three minutes left in the game.
"I've seen it in three other games this year," Kinney said. "We talk about in practice being able to finish. To be able to finish you've got to be tougher than the other team and Neosho played tougher than we did in the fourth quarter. When you play tougher, good things happen, and that's what happened to Neosho."
Van Buren was led by sophomore Aspen Cone, who scored 11 points; freshman Camryn Schmidt, with 10 points; and Barbour's three 3-point shots that gave her 9 points in the game.
The Neosho girls play at 2:30 p.m. against Whitehaven.
