Aurora girls downs Clever in overtime and the boys add a pair of wins last week

The Lady Houn's have quietly had a tremendous season and have extended their win streak to five games this season after defeating Clever and Reeds Spring.
The week began Wednesday, as they traveled to Clever for the Lady Jays' senior night. The game started at a breakneck pace as both teams were flying up and down the court. Ellie Creasey hit a triad of threes in part of a 21-point opening quarter and the Lady Houn's led 21-17 after one quarter.
Defense picked up in the second quarter on both sides as only 12 points were scored combined between the two teams. But Aurora won the second period as well. The Lady Houn's went into the half with a 28-22 lead behind 14 first half points from Creasey.
The defensive intensity continued into the second half and Aurora struggled to get the ball in the hoop, but still held a 36-30 lead going into the fourth quarter.
Aurora only scored six points in the final quarter. After a 21-point explosion in the first quarter, it took the next three quarters to score their next 21. On the other end, Clever’s ability to get to the free throw line proved to be the difference as Jayleign Flood got nine points to fall in the final quarter herself, and a three from Mattie Kime tied the game with just over two seconds left to force overtime.
Aurora reestablished dominance at the free throw line in overtime shooting 14 freebies in the four minute period, hitting seven of them and holding Clever to just a single bucket as the Lady Houn's got the 49-44 win.
“I thought we did a lot of positive things offensively in the first quarter but wasn’t able to get the stops we needed to and that allowed them to stay closer than it should have been,” said Aurora coach Jason Cole following the win. “As the game went on, we did a better job of getting those stops and shortening the court up and gave us a better chance to be successful defensively.”
The Lady Houn's followed up the win in Clever with a Senior Night win over Reeds Spring in blowout fashion, 59-18, as Creasey continued her impressive senior campaign.
The Lady Houn's improve to 16-6 on the season and continue their quest this week starting with a road trip to Cassville on Monday. They return home Thursday in a Big 8 battle against Lamar, and wrap up the week Friday in just the second ever showdown against Chadwick. The Lady Houn's took the 2017 matchup 64-43.

Dawgs add pair of wins last week
The Aurora Houn Dawgs have started to take advantage of a softer back end of the schedule with two wins against Clever and Reeds Spring last week.
The week began on Wednesday as the Dawgs traveled to Clever to play a Bluejays team who is trying to snap a six-game losing streak. Clever drew first blood taking a 4-0 lead but Aurora's Daunte Floyd looked to capitalize on the distinct size advantage Aurora possessed on the Jays. A technical foul from the Clever sideline led to an Aurora run that would give the Dawgs the lead. Six quick ones from Floyd gave Aurora a punch and then the rest of the offense woke up in a balanced high octane attack. All five starters scored in the 21-point quarter including seven from Floyd and five from Cannon Thornhill and Trandon Darnall. Aurora led 21-10 after the first quarter.
Aurora started to pile it on in the second quarter, as a pair of threes from Landon Boatwright and Hayze Hoffman led Aurora on another run and the Dawgs took a commanding 35-19 lead into the half.
Clever was able to go on a bit of a run early in the third quarter and cut the deficit down to about 13 points, but the size of Aurora once again proved to be too much. The Dawgs secured a 70-41 victory.
“At this time of the year there’s not a ton of coaching involved anymore," Dawgs coach Adam Thornhill said following the win. "What is done is done and we try to emphasize a few things, but we have played a really tough schedule. For these next couple weeks, we want to just play hard and work on some simple things like communicating better, but I thought our kids played really great in a tough atmosphere and got the job done.”
Thursday was Senior Night where Aurora honored four seniors in Hayze Hoffman, Daunte Floyd, Trandan Darnall and Kelton Brown. The festivities were a precursor to the celebration afterwards as the Dawgs took advantage of big nights from the seniors in a 56-44 win over Reeds Spring.
Aurora moves to 6-16 on the season and had a busy week scheduled, as they played host to Warsaw on Monday, Cassville on Tuesday and Conway on Thursday.