Thunder drop road game to Lions
Anthony Crane/The Forum
Nodaway Valley junior Lane Larabee puts up a shot against St. Joseph Christian on Tuesday in St. Joseph.
ST. JOSEPH, Mo. — The Nodaway Valley Thunder have now lost two games in a row and five of six after Tuesday night’s 70-55 loss to the St. Joseph Christian Lions. But even with that run going into districts, the Thunder are confident about where they are and how they are playing as a team.
“We have to get our minds right because we haven’t been as successful at the end of the year as we wanted or expected to be,” Nodaway Valley coach Shawn Emerson said. “But we’ve seen a lot of growth from this team. Throughout the year I’ve had people step up in positions at the beginning of the year where I didn’t know what we’d get from the kids.”
The Thunder battled back-and-forth with St. Joseph Christian in the first quarter. The Lions jumped out to a 6-2 lead, but Nodaway Valley battled back to take the lead behind Preston Jenkins and Kayden Conn.
One of many 3-pointers in the game gave the lead back to the Lions at 9-8. Nodaway Valley regained the lead for the final time on a Jenkins basket, but St. Joseph Christian finished the quarter with a 10-4 run and a 19-14 lead going into the second quarter.
Conn scored five more points in the second quarter, but Nodaway Valley struggled to keep up with the 3-point shooting of the Lions.
“We’d see the rim and have a shot — but sometimes we have to understand that that’s what they want,” Emerson said. “They want a quick shot and possession because then they can go down and get a quick three. They’re trying to get you to play Helter Skelter and we knew for us to be successful; we needed to slow down and make six or seven passes to break them down. We did that and that’s how we were able to keep it close in the first quarter.”
St. Joseph Christian made four 3-pointers in the half to take a 39-27 lead into halftime. The Thunder played better in the second half as the Lions outscored them by just three points over the final two quarters.
Jenkins and Conn led the team with 11 points each. Tyler Gray and Deontrae Mincy each scored 10 for the Thunder.
Nodaway Valley will have almost a week before beginning Class 2, District 16 play on Tuesday. The fourth-seeded Thunder will face the fifth-seeded East Atchison Wolves.
The Thunder are 2-0 this season in that matchup but the Wolves have won six of their last eight games.
“We’ve had success against them, but they say it’s tough to beat a team three times,” Emerson said. “We know that we’re going to have to guard the three and do a good job of closing out on Hedlund. For us, we have to grind three more practices so that we can be ready on Tuesday.”
