Monett boys basketball beats Southwest Washburn, falls to Mustangs

Lady Cubs knock off Aurora backed by Wilson’s 26-point showing+
 
The Monett High School boys’ basketball team played three games last week, winning one of them but playing well in the two losses.
On Friday, Feb. 13, the Cubs traveled to McDonald County and lost to the Mustangs 55-46.    
McDonald County led 12-8 after the first quarter and pushed their lead to 27-16 by halftime. In the third quarter, Monett was able to cut into their deficit by outscoring the Mustangs, 14-10 to cut the lead to 37-30. McDonald County added another 18 points in the final quarter of play, while Monett put in 16 points but fell a little bit short in the end.    
Alex Meeks paced Monett with 19 points and seven rebounds in the game.
“We did a lot of really good things on the defensive end in the first half but we struggled to make shots,” said head coach Andrew Ballock. “We had a really good third quarter cutting the deficit to three points before McDonald County went on a run to extend their lead. We were down a few guys for various reasons causing our rotation to tighten up a bit but we played really hard and just ran out of gas with it being our third game of the week.”    
Monett traveled to Southwest (Washburn) on Thursday, Feb. 12, and was able to secure a 63-51 victory over the Trojans.    
The Cubs led 13-9 after the first quarter and were able to score 16 points in the second quarter but the Trojans added 18 points to cut the lead to 29-27. A 19-point third quarter allowed Monett to increase their lead to 48-37. Monett continued to shoot the ball well in the fourth quarter, scoring 15 points to win the game by 12 points.    
Jack Stephens finished the game with a double-double, scoring 12 points and pulling down 13 boards. Meeks ended the game with 19 points.    
“We did a lot of really good things on the offensive end,” said Ballock. “We had seven different guys score at least a basket and everybody who touched the floor had an impact on the game in a positive manner. It was a complete team victory; I loved seeing everybody happy for each other and not only their own successes. It was a good win for us to build some positive momentum.”    
Monett started the week by hosting Aurora on Tuesday, Feb. 10 and fell to the Houn Dawgs, 66-55.    
Aurora led 16-15 after the first quarter but were able to increase their lead to 35-24 by halftime. In the third quarter, Aurora added another 17 points while Monett put up 10 but still trailed 52-36 heading into the final quarter of play. Monett made a furious comeback in the fourth quarter, scoring 19 points but the Cubs would come up short in the game.    
Stephens led Monett with 22 points, and nine rebounds and Meeks added 14 points and four boards in the loss.    
“Aurora did a really good job defensively, speeding us up and causing us to turn the ball over 27 times throughout the game,” said Ballock. “Offensively when we got shots, we got really good ones. Defensively we struggled to contain their best player, and we let them get too many uncontested threes. We must continue to get better at the little things.”    
Monett is 9-15 on the season and were scheduled to play at Lamar last night.

Girls basketball    
The Lady Cubs traveled to Class 5, third ranked McDonald County on Thursday, but lost to the Mustangs, 86-16.    
Earlier in the week, the Lady Cubs made the trip to Aurora on Monday, Feb. 9 and defeated the Lady Houn’s 59-48.    
Monett jumped out to a 13-8 first quarter lead and increased that lead to 30-19 by halftime. The Lady Cubs added 19 more points in the third quarter and led 49-37 at the end of the quarter. In the final quarter of play, the Lady Houn’s outscored Monett 11-10 in the fourth quarter, but it would not matter, as Monett would get the 11-point victory.    
Kilee Wilson led Monett with 26 points and Avery Stokes added 14 points in the win.    
 “We came out and had a really good first half and built a double-digit lead by halftime,” said head coach Josh Kleine. “We did enough in the second half to keep Aurora in check and finish with the win.”    
Monett is 15-8 and was scheduled to play at Lamar on Monday night and Lighthouse SR High last night.