Lady Tigers come up just short in battle with powerful South Iron

NEELYVILLE — What a way to test one’s playoff mettle with a test of iron.

South Iron specifically and that’s who came calling to Neelyville Tuesday night as the host Lady Tigers took on one of the better teams in the state a week away from the beginning of the district playoffs.

Coming off a large defeat in the Ozark Foothills Conference tournament title game last week also raised the stakes for Neelyville head coach Becky Hale.

The Lady Tigers ultimately fell 47-40, but not before making a strong competitive bounce back from that loss.

Neelyville was led by Parker Ernst (17 points) and Layni Dobbins (11).

“We had our chances, and we had some opportunities here in there that could’ve helped us out, but it definitely was better than last week,” Hale said. “If you aren’t learning something (from the Doniphan loss), then we are not doing our job. I think they learned some lessons, and we are just trying to get ready for the postseason.

“Maybe they were expecting something else (on missing the numerous close-in shots) but that’s nothing new for us — we just gotta get down there and rebound. I don’t think it could be any worse than 96 hours ago. This was more like how we play. If we could score a little bit more that would be helpful.”

Neelyville employed extended pressure from just about halfcourt extended and used a zone defense to extend out South Iron possessions early. The Lady Tigers also were unafraid of pushing the tempo — and if not for some unfortunate near misses from pointblank range, they would have been much better than down 8-4 through the first five minutes.

A Jade Crosswhite jumper just north of the one-minute mark of the opening period knotted the game at 10-all as the Lady Tigers continued to speed the pace with aplomb.

South Iron escaped the first eight minutes up 11-10.

However, the second quarter started roughly for the Lady Tigers, who gave up a 6-0 run in the first 43 seconds.

The period was rife with a multitude of Neelyville turnovers — many unforced — and yet, it was still within striking range.

A Crosswhite drive and make pulled the Lady Tigers to within 21-17 with three minutes left in the half.

The Neelyville zone was effective at limiting South Iron easy makes, but the visitors were able to sink a few deep 3-pointers to keep their distance, leading 29-23 at half.

To start the second half Neelyville held onto the ball for a full minute, got three shot attempts off and couldn’t connect before a turnover ended the defensive grind for the Lady Panthers.

Offensively, Neelyville got looks, but couldn’t get any cooperation from the hoop. Manwhile, South Iron managed three free throws and a basket to move up to a 34-23 lead at the 4:50 mark of the third quarter.

However, Eaker hit a runner to pull Neelyville within 34-27 two minutes later as the Lady Tigers refused to go away quietly.

“I felt we played better as a team defensively, and we worked together,” Crosswhite said. “We were mad that we had let everybody down (Friday) and we wanted to come out and show people what we were about. Against Doniphan, we needed to handle the ball better. Tonight we were looking to play better defense and lock them down a little bit.”

Crosswhite also admitted that many of their turnovers could’ve been avoided with more focus.

“Especially me,“ Crosswhite said.

South Iron led 37-30 after three quarters as the game morphed into hard effort, numerous turnovers and just straight up oddities, which offered a teaser of a potentially entertaining final eight minutes.

Ernst hit a twisting five-footer and a follow up to keep the Lady Tigers within five two-plus minutes into the fourth quarter as South Iron kept answering each challenge.

Neelyville consistently kept the result in doubt, but too many missed opportunities ultimately led to the Lady Panthers leaving town on top.

Neelyville plays Kelly 7:30 p.m. Thursday, then the Lady Tigers wrap up the regular season with Sikeston at noon Saturday to make up a postponed contest.