Avenging two straight first-round exits, the Neosho County Panthers women blew by the Fort Scott Greyhounds, 80-51, in the first round of the NJCAA Region VI Tournament on Tuesday night.
“Every coach and every player in our locker room did their job,” Neosho County head coach J.J. Davis said. “They let me coach them. I didn’t do it my normal way with how we do our platoons.”
While Neosho County still dug deep into its bench — nine players played at least 15 minutes — Davis didn’t deploy his usual five-in, five-out platoon system.
Why? Because his wife said so. “I listened to my wife. My wife asked me some questions and I trust her more than anything. I guess she’s right,” Davis said. “She thought some people needed more minutes than what they were getting. That’s why we went the other way.”
Neosho County raced out to a 13-1 lead in the first quarter. Fort Scott roared back and briefly took a lead in the second period before the Panthers reclaimed an advantage for good.
The Panthers outscored the Greyhounds, 43-24, in the second half.
“It’s always whoever settles in first,” Davis said. “You know it’s going to be a dogfight. We settled in and everybody stayed ready. I truly think we just wore them down. They struggled to do what they wanted to do. It was cool to see.”
Sophomore guard Chloe Parker paced the Panthers with 14 points on 6-of-13 shooting — she scored the first six points for Neosho County.
“Chloe told me it wasn’t going to be her last game,” Davis said. “She came out and proved it. The rest of them followed her. That’s really cool.”
Jaida Harris and Bauke Graulus each reached double figures with 10 points apiece for the Panthers.
Mariyah Moss led Fort Scott with 13 points.
Neosho County forced Fort Scott into 28 turnovers while the Panthers were limited to 11 giveaways.
“We made an emphasis after we lost to KCK with 30 turnovers even though we felt like we were the better team,” Davis said. “They stepped up to the challenge and valued the ball.”
Tuesday’s win over Fort Scott also served as a rematch from last year’s first round, which saw the Greyhounds upset the Panthers.
“I’ve never watched last year’s game,” Davis said. “I knew when we lost at KCK, I knew God was setting us up for something. I’ll be darned if we didn’t get the three-seed and we got to play Fort Scott again. He gave us a chance to redeem ourselves. I’ve got a group of sophomores that are pretty tough.”
Up next
Neosho County will face rival Allen in Kansas City on Friday in the semifinals of the Region VI Tournament. The two teams split the regular season series.
“We hoped it was Allen. We wanted it to be them,” Davis said. “It’ll be about who does the gameplan. Will we lock in? Will we stay committed to the cause?”
