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The East Newton Lady Patriots and the Neosho Lady Wildcats came into Monday’s contest moving in completely different directions.
Neosho was struggling, losing five straight dating back to the consolation final of the Neosho Holiday Classic.
East Newton had won two in a row after narrowly falling to the 10th-ranked Southwest Lady Trojans.
The roles reversed on Monday. Catie Cummins led three Lady Wildcats in double figures with 13 points and freshman Morgan Rogers played her best varsity game of the season to lead Neosho to a 47-38 win over the Lady Patriots.
“I think tonight was one of our better efforts of the season, all around,” Neosho coach Lance Robbins said. “I thought we played solid for four quarters. I thought we rebounded the ball well. We played good defense and only gave them one shot. Then we were able to run our motion offense very well. We got the shots we wanted to get and made them.”
East Newton jumped out to an early, 13-9 lead after one quarter. But in the second quarter, the Lady ‘Cats started to chip away at the lead. Neosho ended the second quarter on a 7-0 run, capped and highlighted by an Ashley Gilion step back 3-pointer at the buzzer to give the Lady Wildcats a 20-19 lead going into the locker room.
It was a lead they would not relinquish.
“It was a huge momentum swinger, there’s no question,” Robbins said of the Gilion trey. “We trailed most of the game to that point and it gave us the lead going into half. Then we came out in the third quarter and made a quick basket. So that’s a five-point swing right there. It gave us a lot of confidence to finish out the game. She hits those kinds of shots. She has done that for the last three years that I’ve been here.”
One of the biggest problems for East Newton was its lack of balance on offense. Freshman forward Kourtney Brewster finished with a game-high 20 points, but nobody else had more than six points for the Lady Pats.
“Offensively, we didn’t shoot it as well as we have (recently),” East Newton coach Marty Rinehart said. “We are trying to make sure that everyone on our team is a threat to score.”
The biggest disparity was on the glass. Neosho had a 27-17 advantage on the boards in the contest. Of their 27 rebounds, 10 were on the offensive end for the Lady Wildcats. Brewster and Lindey Broyles, who had 17 rebounds against Lamar last week, combined for just three rebounds in the loss for East Newton.
The East Newton Lady Patriots and the Neosho Lady Wildcats came into Monday’s contest moving in completely different directions.
Neosho was struggling, losing five straight dating back to the consolation final of the Neosho Holiday Classic.
East Newton had won two in a row after narrowly falling to the 10th-ranked Southwest Lady Trojans.
The roles reversed on Monday. Catie Cummins led three Lady Wildcats in double figures with 13 points and freshman Morgan Rogers played her best varsity game of the season to lead Neosho to a 47-38 win over the Lady Patriots.
“I think tonight was one of our better efforts of the season, all around,” Neosho coach Lance Robbins said. “I thought we played solid for four quarters. I thought we rebounded the ball well. We played good defense and only gave them one shot. Then we were able to run our motion offense very well. We got the shots we wanted to get and made them.”
East Newton jumped out to an early, 13-9 lead after one quarter. But in the second quarter, the Lady ‘Cats started to chip away at the lead. Neosho ended the second quarter on a 7-0 run, capped and highlighted by an Ashley Gilion step back 3-pointer at the buzzer to give the Lady Wildcats a 20-19 lead going into the locker room.
It was a lead they would not relinquish.
“It was a huge momentum swinger, there’s no question,” Robbins said of the Gilion trey. “We trailed most of the game to that point and it gave us the lead going into half. Then we came out in the third quarter and made a quick basket. So that’s a five-point swing right there. It gave us a lot of confidence to finish out the game. She hits those kinds of shots. She has done that for the last three years that I’ve been here.”
One of the biggest problems for East Newton was its lack of balance on offense. Freshman forward Kourtney Brewster finished with a game-high 20 points, but nobody else had more than six points for the Lady Pats.
“Offensively, we didn’t shoot it as well as we have (recently),” East Newton coach Marty Rinehart said. “We are trying to make sure that everyone on our team is a threat to score.”
The biggest disparity was on the glass. Neosho had a 27-17 advantage on the boards in the contest. Of their 27 rebounds, 10 were on the offensive end for the Lady Wildcats. Brewster and Lindey Broyles, who had 17 rebounds against Lamar last week, combined for just three rebounds in the loss for East Newton.
“When we are playing well, it’s because we guard and rebound well,” Rinehart said. "They beat us on the boards tonight. Rebounding was the biggest thing.”
In the fourth quarter, Gilion, who had been largely quiet for most of the contest on offense, and Rogers led Neosho to the finish line.
Gilion scored four late points and had three assists in the last eight minutes. Rogers scored eight of her career-high 12 points in the fourth quarter. Rogers also pulled down four rebounds and blocked two shots.
“This win was very important,” Robbins said. “It was important for the girls, it was important to me and it was important to our program. When you’re losing it affects your confidence and it can make it a little bit harder to go out and compete sometimes. Tonight we were ready to go out and get a win. Hopefully, this will propel us into the rest of our non-conference and move into the conference schedule.”
Scorers for Neosho were: Cummins 13, Rogers 12, Gilion 10, Matty Liedtke 6, Morgan Rathmann 4 and Chelsey Henry 2.
Henry led Neosho with seven rebounds. Gilion had five assists.
Neosho (7-11) will face McDonald County on the road on Jan. 27.
Scorers for East Newton were: Brewster 20, Shelbey Thomlinson 6, Hailey Heilig 5, Emily Brummett 4 and Whitney Thomlinson 3.
Heilig had six rebounds for the Lady Patriots.
East Newton (5-8) will take on Seneca at home Thursday.
