Worth County getting healthy
TUCKER MCCOLLOUGH/TIMES-TRIBUNE
Worth County junior Lucas Frisch throws a bounce pass on Friday night against St. Joseph Christian in Grant City.
GRANT CITY, Mo. — A healthier Worth County team drew a solid start as they would find success in Karson Briner with multiple blocks and tough finishes at the rim, but would end the first quarter down 15-12.
After multiple runs through the game, St. Joseph Christian would steal a win, 62-50 over Worth County.
“We are getting healthy,” Worth County coach Les New said, “This is the first time Hayden Sanders, Cole Ruby and Caleb New have been on the floor together in three weeks.”
The Tigers have has been plagued by injuries thus far, but with the season heading into the home stretch the immediate future is looking brighter. On Friday, they showed extreme effort and intensity throughout the game.
“We play hard and do a lot of really good things, but we went up against a team that has played a lot of ball,” Les New said. “But our kids played until the final whistle.”
The Tigers traded buckets with Christian all through the first quarter, but good hustle and quality shots kept the game close. The first quarter would be highlighted by Ruby — after crossing up a defender, he would make a fadeaway midrange jumper at the buzzer. This shot would cut the lead to three and Worth County would trail 15-12 after one quarter.
“As a team, we shot pretty well, and we just wanted it,” Ruby said.
The second quarter started with the Lions moving to a full-court press to put pressure on the Worth County guards. A Caleb New three and multiple charges being taken kept Worth County alive, but a 7-0 run by Christian would round out the half and Christian would lead 27-19 going into the half.
“They space the floor and shoot threes so we had to guard the perimeter, but you get beat off the bounce and they are pretty good at doing those things, along with paint touches they hit threes.” Les New said.
Briner would get the second half started with multiple finishes in the paint, along with Ruby finding success with the three-ball. Lion guard Johnston Stewart got to the cup, extending the lead to double digits as well as baiting the Tigers into foul trouble. Heading into the fourth quarter, the Tigers trailed 46-32.
“We had a height advantage with Karson and we were doing pretty good until we started fouling,” Les New said.
Ruby and the Tigers brought a presence on defense, the Lions were not ready for. Worth County would cut the lead down to eight. With time running out Worth County went into a press but the Lions were able to slow the game down and hit key free throws as Christian escaped Grant City with a 62-50 win.
“We worked hard on defense, but we just couldn’t get it done,” Ruby said.
Ruby led the Tigers with 16 points along with Briner’s 15 and Caleb New added nine. Cannon Fletcher had five points while Hayden Sanders’ had three and Lucas Frisch two.
Worth County (7-10) will be host Mound City on Monday.
“We knew it was going to be a struggle, but we played until the whistle,” Les New said.
