Tigers play tough but lose to taller Blue Valley NW team
Jan. 19—PITTSBURG, Kan. — The Carthage Tigers girls basketball team played tough against a taller squad from Blue Valley Northwest High School in Overland Park on Thursday, but it wasn't enough as the Tigers fell to 7-7 on the season with a 58-51 loss at the Bill Hanson Memorial Basketball Tournament in Pittsburg.
The Tigers were able to hold their own in the first half against a team that had superior height at all positions and even build a 26-21 lead at halftime, but a rough third quarter saw the Huskies outscore Carthage 22-10, and the Tigers couldn't overcome that.
Blue Valley (4-5) used its size to dominate the inside and counter the outside game Carthage showed in the first half.
"Obviously, size played a role because I thought in the first half they were scoring with offensive rebounds, we didn't do a great job of boxing them out," said Carthage Head Coach Scott Moore. "In the second half they started throwing over the top of us a little more, getting their posts on cutting action and got baskets on us. So the size made a difference, but I'm really proud of our girls showing a lot of heart. They took pride in the fact that they came out and battled a clearly dominantly tall team."
Sophomore Lauren Choate led all scorers with 22 points in the game, including four three pointers and an assist with a pass to sophomore Jaidyn Brunnert for the buzzer-beating layup to end the first half.
"Lauren got the competitive juices going today, there was a girl that stepped up and challenged her on the other team and she took that to heart that she was going to win that battle and she did," Moore said. "She had a great night, shot the ball well, did a great job of penetrating and if she didn't make the shot she got fouled a lot of times, so loved her aggression offensively."
Senior Kianna Yates scored 17 at the point guard position, while sophomore Lexa Youngblood had five points, Brunnert scored four, Sophomore Zye Clark scored two points and sophomore Maggie Boyd scored one.
"Kianna Yates did a Kianna Yates kind of game, 17 or 18 points, whatever it was, and she had a lot of assists on Lauren's baskets so the two of them played great," Moore said "We just really need that third option to step up and score so we can battle."
For Blue Valley NW, junior Elise Grosdiddier scored 21 points, including 14 in that dominating third quarter for the Huskies.
"Elise did a great job," said Blue Valley NW Coach Tiffany Dirks. "Once we figured out that she was our mismatch against them we were able to feed the ball inside to her. She muscled through, she caught the ball, she read the defense very well. Our post coach did an excellent job getting her prepared, footwork wise, body position wise, to be successful tonight."
Other scorers for Blue Valley included junior Lainie Douglas with 14 points, junior Josie Grosdidier with eight points, junior Ava Smith with seven points, and sophomore Gabbi McFall and junior Logan Wittorck with four points each.
