WALNUT GROVE, Mo. -- The Ash Grove Pirates earned a hard-fought victory over rival Walnut Grove, 52-31, on Tuesday night.
Both teams struggled early defensively and the score at the end of one quarter was 22-14. What first looked to be an offensive game turned into a defensive struggle in the second quarter when Ash Grove scored six points to Walnut Grove's four.
Walnut Grove's turnovers allowed Ash Grove to maintain their lead through the first half. The Tigers missed four shots in the paint right before half that would have tied the game 28-28, but instead they went into the halftime down by 10.
"Defensively in the first half, I thought we had some key breakdowns that cost us in the first half," said Pirates Coach Jeremy Nicholson.
"The second half we picked it up defensively. We did force them into some turnovers and managed to get points off those turnovers."
The Pirates held the Tigers to 13 points in the second half.
Ash Grove Senior Nic Cashio picked up his third foul with two minutes to go in the third quarter, which forced Nicholson to take him out. Walnut Grove could not take advantage on the inside when he was out, nor could they get him to pick up his fourth foul until the outcome of the game was all but decided.
"When Nic can help us offensively we are a lot better team, he was very physical tonight and he attacked the rim," Nicholson said.
Physically, Ash Grove out-muscled Walnut Grove.
"Tonight the style of the game was not one that favors us," said disappointed Tigers’ Coach Jeff Cope. "Turnovers have been a weakness for us."
The Tigers have lost nine games, six of which have been by four points or less. In those six losses they have had more than 20 turnovers in each game.
"That's kind of been our Achilles' Heel. I thought we were past that because we'd been playing pretty good basketball, but the turnover bug reared its ugly head tonight," said Cope.
Leading the Pirates (7-11) in scoring was Jake Keller with 15. Walnut Grove (7-9) was led by Kaleb Killingsworth with 9.
