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Nodaway-Holt did everything it needed to and then some defensively in the second half to give itself a chance to rally from an 11-point halftime deficit against Mound City.
The Trojans just didn’t make enough shots.
After giving up 36 first half points, the Trojans limited Mound City to only 16 in the second half, yet never made much headway into their halftime lead.
The Panthers maintained at least a seven-point cushion in the fourth quarter and came away with a 52-43 win over Nodaway-Holt Friday night.
Nodaway-Holt dropped to 14-5 and had its three-game win streak snapped.
"I told the kids afterwards their effort was good and we did a lot of good things defensively, but again, it's 16-20 points worth of offensive rebounds and layups that we just keep leaving," said Nodaway-Holt head coach Terry Petersen. "That's the frustrating thing. They're doing a lot of good things. They're putting themselves in position to finish and win ball games. We're just not finishing. That part is kind of frustrating, but they did play hard tonight."
After a 25-point first half, Nodaway-Holt scored only 18 second half points and just six while the game was still in doubt in the fourth quarter.
Besides the easy misses inside, Nodaway-Holt also made just one three-pointer all game and it came on a halfcourt heave by Zach Lemar to conclude the first quarter.
"We just really haven't shot the ball well for probably about a three or four week spell here," said Petersen. "I thought we were pretty good shooters, but we'll probably get them all in one night when we do snap out of it. We shoot the ball too well in practice to be shooting like that in games."
Mound City, meanwhile, made seven three's, accounting for an 18-point disparity.
Two of those came at the ends of quarters, providing huge momentum shifts.
Lucas Schawang got his man in the air and beat the buzzer with a three at the end of first half to give Mound City a 36-25 lead.
After Nodaway-Holt had pulled within six—their lowest deficit in the second half—Jeff Atkins hit one to close the third quarter for a nine-point lead.
"They had a big impact," said Mound City head coach Corey Miles. "Zach hit a nice halfcourt shot at the end of the first which I thought was big. At halftime, when we nailed that one, it kind of evened it up. To hit that one at the end of third Jeff hit, it was really key. It kind of got the momentum going."
Nodaway-Holt did everything it needed to and then some defensively in the second half to give itself a chance to rally from an 11-point halftime deficit against Mound City.
The Trojans just didn’t make enough shots.
After giving up 36 first half points, the Trojans limited Mound City to only 16 in the second half, yet never made much headway into their halftime lead.
The Panthers maintained at least a seven-point cushion in the fourth quarter and came away with a 52-43 win over Nodaway-Holt Friday night.
Nodaway-Holt dropped to 14-5 and had its three-game win streak snapped.
"I told the kids afterwards their effort was good and we did a lot of good things defensively, but again, it's 16-20 points worth of offensive rebounds and layups that we just keep leaving," said Nodaway-Holt head coach Terry Petersen. "That's the frustrating thing. They're doing a lot of good things. They're putting themselves in position to finish and win ball games. We're just not finishing. That part is kind of frustrating, but they did play hard tonight."
After a 25-point first half, Nodaway-Holt scored only 18 second half points and just six while the game was still in doubt in the fourth quarter.
Besides the easy misses inside, Nodaway-Holt also made just one three-pointer all game and it came on a halfcourt heave by Zach Lemar to conclude the first quarter.
"We just really haven't shot the ball well for probably about a three or four week spell here," said Petersen. "I thought we were pretty good shooters, but we'll probably get them all in one night when we do snap out of it. We shoot the ball too well in practice to be shooting like that in games."
Mound City, meanwhile, made seven three's, accounting for an 18-point disparity.
Two of those came at the ends of quarters, providing huge momentum shifts.
Lucas Schawang got his man in the air and beat the buzzer with a three at the end of first half to give Mound City a 36-25 lead.
After Nodaway-Holt had pulled within six—their lowest deficit in the second half—Jeff Atkins hit one to close the third quarter for a nine-point lead.
"They had a big impact," said Mound City head coach Corey Miles. "Zach hit a nice halfcourt shot at the end of the first which I thought was big. At halftime, when we nailed that one, it kind of evened it up. To hit that one at the end of third Jeff hit, it was really key. It kind of got the momentum going."
Atkins added another back-breaking triple in the fourth quarter, his fourth of the game. He finished with 15 points.
Schawang, who directed Mound City's offense in the second half, led all scorers with 16 points.
Those two combined for 15 of the team's 16 second half points, and keyed the team's strong defensive effort.
"I'm just real proud of the way our guys defended because if we don't defend, we lose that game by 10,” said Miles.
Zach Lemar and Stephen Schniedermeyer shared the scoring lead for Nodaway-Holt with 13 points.
Lemar picked up right where he left off the night before with nine in the first quarter, but didn't make another field goal after his half-court bank shot.
"They put Schawang on him for a little bit," said Petersen. "It was kind of a mismatch size-wise. You gotta give some credit to their defense. He had some looks, but he had a lot of good passes, too. The thing with Zach this year is he's not just shooting all the time. He's looking for open players. We got to have that if we're going to to be successful. But he didn't get quite as many looks as we would've liked."
Brandon Saxton scored eight second half-points to finish in double-figures with 11.
He accounted for four of Nodaway-Holt's six second half field goals, including their first three in the fourth quarter.
The Trojans were without starting guard Nick Patterson who scored 13 in a seven-point win over Mound City in the finals of the Mound City Tournament earlier this year.
"You put 13 on the board there's another difference," said Petersen. "It hurts with the depth beause they're a fast team and you've got to have that if you're going to beat teams like that. It was certainly a factor, but on the other hand, the guys just got to suck it up. They had themselves in position to do good things, just got to finish."
Nodaway-Holt got off to a promising start, scoring six straight points on two Lemar jumpers and one by Saxton.
Mound City answered with five straight points and bolted together a 15-3 run that put them in front to stay.
It included a three by Atkins and one by Ben Luna.
Mound City made four consecutive layups to start the second quarter and a three by Luke Sanders extended the lead to 28-16.
The Trojans fought back within eight before Schawang sent the Panthers to the half with an 11-point lead, concluding a 21-point quarter.
Nodaway-Holt held the Panthers to eight third quarter points and three field goals, but ended the quarter down 40-31.
In the fourth quarter, Nodaway-Holt missed on the only two chances it had to get closer than seven.
"We had some mental gaffes in the first half I thought we kind of got corrected in the second half," said Petersen. "It was a matter of us hitting some shots."
Now with two losses in conference, the Trojans trail both Mound City and Rock Port by a game.
The Trojans have already lost to both teams, so their chances at a shared title look pretty bleak.
"I don't see either one of those two teams losing with what they've got left," said Petersen. "The guys knew that, too. If we wanted a serious shot at it, tonight was a must-win deal."
