Despite leading by as much as 13 in the first half, the Neosho County Panthers men fell to the undefeated, No. 3 Johnson County Cavaliers, 80-55, on Wednesday night in KJCCC play.
“I thought we settled for early threes too much without going inside-out,” Neosho County head coach Taylor Shaffer said. “You’re not going to shoot a high percentage with that. As we started to miss some open shots, we stopped doing the things we were doing well. We just didn’t execute very well when things started to not go our way.”
Neosho County dominated the first 15 minutes of the game, building a double-digit lead.
“The whole game, we got good looks,” Shaffer said. “When we were making shots, we did things the right way. Then we got away from it. We showed we could be hard to guard. We’ve got to find a way to do it for 40 minutes.”
The Panthers went without a field goal for nearly 10 minutes of game action stretching from the first to second half as the Cavaliers claimed the advantage.
Johnson County also dominated the boards in the second stanza and ended the night with a 38-31 edge — a number Shaffer thought wasn’t even accurate.
“They definitely outrebounded us,” Shaffer said. “When things weren’t going their way, (Johnson County) never wavered. They kept playing hard. They struggled shooting the ball early, so they hammered the glass and dominated the paint.”
Avian Webb led Johnson County with 22 points on 5-of-11 shooting, including an 8-of-10 night at the charity stripe.
Cooper Weeks paced the Panthers with 13 points, also on 5-of-11 shooting to go along with 3-of-7 from deep.
“Early on, he was really good,” Shaffer said. “He was one of the kids, though, that missed a couple of open shots and shied away a little bit.”
Neosho County hadn’t played in a week-and-a-half because of the snow storm. Its scheduled rivalry game at Allen on Saturday was moved to this Monday.
“It was hard. At this time of year, you want to be playing games,” Shaffer said. “Twice, we prepared for Allen and we had to tell the guys the game was canceled. It was tough on us.”
Neosho County fell to 10-10 overall and 0-4 in conference play with the loss. Johnson County improved to 21-0 and 5-0, respectively.
Up next
Neosho County hits the road twice in three days, taking on Highland on Saturday and Allen on Monday.
“Highland is always a tough place to play,” Shaffer said. “They’re athletic and run a ton of action that you have to guard. But it should be a good game. If we play well, we’ll have a chance to win it. Then with Allen, it’s a tossup when Neosho County and Allen play. It’s going to be a dogfight.”
Raziel Taylor of the Neosho County Panthers fights through contact for a shot against Johnson County on Wednesday. Sean Frye | Tribune photo
