Monett Lady Cubs defeat Clever Lady Jays; look to No. 3 McDonald Co.

Monett boys basketball drops two games but continues to battle, heads to McDonald County
 
The Monett High School boys’ and girls’ basketball teams played five total game last week, with the Lady Cubs playing three and the boys’ playing two.
The Lady Cubs hosted Clever on Friday, Feb. 6 and were able to pull out the one-point victory, 44-43    
The Lady Jays led after the first quarter, 9-6 but Monett fought back in the second quarter, outscoring Clever 13-11 to enter the half only down one point, 20-19. The Lady Cubs scored 14 points in the third quarter to take a 33-32 lead heading into the final quarter of play. In the fourth quarter both teams scored 11 points each, but it was not enough for Clever as the Lady Jays fell to Monett.
Kilee Wilson had 16 points, and Meredith Merriman added 14 points in the victory.
“Clever is our best win of the year so far,” said head coach Josh Kleine. “We played together and didn’t back down even when things got difficult.”
The Lady Cubs made the trip to Nevada on Thursday, Feb. 5 to take on the Lady Tigers and lost 56-34.
After a very close first quarter in which Nevada held a slim 7-5 lead, the Lady Tigers broke out for 23 points in the second quarter to lead 30-9 at the half. Monett was able to outscore Nevada in the third quarter, 11-10 to cut the deficit to 40-20. The Lady Tigers would add 16 points in the fourth quarter to win the game 56-34. Wilson led Monett with 16 points.
“We came out and played a great first 10 minutes of the ball game,” said Kleine. “They went on a big run in the last part of the second quarter, and we couldn’t recover. Nevada is a very good team, and they make it tough for teams to score.”
The Lady Cubs began their week hosting Cassville on Monday, Feb. 2 but lost to the Lady Cats 57-47.
Monett led 15-11 after the first quarter, but Cassville was able to outscore Monett 19-12 in the second quarter to take a 30-27 halftime lead. The third quarter saw a back-and-forth affair as both teams traded buckets, but Cassville came ahead with a 13-11 margin to increase their lead to 43-38. In the fourth quarter the Lady Cats put up 14 points to close out the win.
“We came out and played really well,” said Kleine. “We were down one with six minutes left in the game. We had a few really good looks from three in the second half that just didn’t go down for us. Cassville is a tough team, but I’m proud how we competed.”
Kilee Wilson led Monett with 20 points and Fenli Wilson added 12 points in the game.    
Monett is 14-7 on the season and were scheduled to play against Aurora on Monday night before traveling to Class 5, third ranked McDonald County tomorrow night.

Boys basketball
On Friday night, the Cubs traveled to Nevada and came home with a 63-36 loss.
The Tigers jumped out to a 17-7 first quarter lead and then added 21 points in the second quarter to lead 38-13 at the half. Both teams scored 11 points each in the third quarter but Nevada outscored Monett 14-12 in the final quarter of the game.
“They are a really good, physical team,” said head coach Andrew Ballock. “We struggled to get stops, especially in the paint. Their physicality really bothered us in all aspects of the game, offensively, defensively, rebounding, etc.”
Jack Stephens led Monett with 13 points.
The Cubs traveled to Cassville on Tuesday, Feb. 3, but fell to the Wildcats 63-45.
It was a very close first quarter, as Cassville held a 13-12 lead at the end of the quarter. The Wildcats broke the game open in the second quarter as Cassville shot lights out scoring 24 points to take a 37-21 halftime lead. Monett bounced back in the third quarter, scoring 15 points but the Wildcats scored 18 points to increase their lead to 55-36. The Cubs outscored Cassville 9-8 in the fourth quarter.
“We really struggled shooting the ball from the perimeter,” said Ballock. “Their zone did a good job not allowing us to get easy baskets around the rim. I thought that Cassville was much more physical than us and pushed us around a little bit.”
Stephens and Brady Rhea both had 15 points in the game.
The Cubs are now 8-13 on the year and were scheduled to play against Aurora on Tuesday before traveling to Southwest (Washburn) tomorrow night and McDonald County on Friday night.