By Dustin Henggeler

The South Nodaway Longhorns boys and girls teams played complete games in their double-digit victories over the North Nodaway Mustangs on December 20 in Barnard.

The girls built an early lead to coast to a 69-39 win while the boys combined strong defense with steady shooting to put away a 51-25 win.

Lady Longhorns unbeaten into the new year

The McConkey sisters combined for 31 points to lead the South Nodaway girls past a tall and physical North Nodaway team.

Comprised of Madison Thompson, Ashley Thompson and Kristin Herndon under the basket, North Nodaway’s defense was steady, but that wasn’t the case as South Nodaway’s superb ball movement opened up plenty of space for easy and often baskets for the Longhorns.

“We knew the McConkey girls were going to be great,” North Nodaway Head Coach Sami Jackson said of the South Nodaway senior twins. “But they played great offense overall and were able to pull our guards out of position.”

At the other end of the court, South Nodaway’s press was frustrating for North Nodaway, which handed over turnovers, or forced transitions too quickly for comfort, both allowing South Nodaway to maintain control of the game.

After going up 19-8 after one quarter of play, the Longhorns maintained its lead after tying the second quarter at 14 points each for a halftime lead of 33-22.

Getting back to it in the third quarter, South Nodaway broke loose with a 20-8 quarter, adding a 16-13 quarter in the fourth to continue its lead extension to a 30-point margin for the final score.

Mallory McConkey led the team with 17 followed by Meaghan McConkey with 14, Kaylin LaMaster, 12, Elizabeth Turpin, seven, Ashton Henggeler, six, Sydney Harlan and Hannah Wilmes, both with four, Alyson Jones, three, and Dolores Holtman, two.

For the Mustangs, Alisha Davison led with 15 points followed by Madison Thompson with 10, Kristin Herndon, six, Keagan O’Riley, four, and Ashley Thompson and Aubrey Trimble, both with two.

Longhorns complete game shuts down Mustangs

South Nodaway put together one of its better games of the early season with a big win over North Nodaway to close out 2016.

After falling in a similar fashion last year to the Mustangs, South Nodaway Head Coach Dustin Skoglund was glad to have gotten the revenge win.

“A win like this over a team such as North Nodaway is important to us,” he said. “We lost to them in the championship of the Northwest Tournament, a game that happened just before holiday break and really sent us into that break frustrated. It was nice to get that win tonight and carry that into the next part of our season.”

For North Nodaway’s Jake Shipman, it was a shocker, but one he hopes the boys hold on to.

“I want this to be a taste in our mouths for a while,” Shipman said of the bitterness he and the players walked away with after their loss. “I want this to keep us in check at where we are and where we’d like to be come the new year.”

Held to just two points to start the game, North Nodaway had a hard time getting its offense started. The Longhorns put away six points before the Mustangs even scored, leading 6-2 into the second quarter. There the Mustangs strung together a late-quarter run to close the gap to 10-15 behind the Longhorns, but play looked rushed and frantic.

Another quarter of being held to two points didn’t sit well with the Mustangs whose frustrations only added with the number of fouls brought on by their press. Meanwhile, South Nodaway stuck to its offensive plan that helped put the game away.

“North Nodaway’s defense plays a lot like ours,” Skoglund said. “We want you to take the first shot you think you have open, but our guys didn’t fall for that tonight, but waited out the right shots and that ended up what made our scoring so one-sided.”

The 15-2 third quarter widened South Nodaway’s existing lead to 30-12 into the fourth quarter. The matchup of the night, South Nodaway’s Tristan Freemyer vs. Peyton Coleman of North Nodaway, helped the Longhorns to the victory.

“That was probably the biggest matchup of the night,” Skoglund said of Tristan Freemyer guarding Coleman. “Tristan did tremendous frustrating Peyton and we had other guys that were able to step in and close down opportunities and just make the night difficult for him.”

While Coleman did score 15 points, two late-game three-pointers made up nearly half that as Freemyer held him to seven points in the first three quarters, with blanked first and third quarters.

Scorers for South Nodaway were Trey Farnan with 12, Logan Harlan, 11, Taylar Freemyer, 10, Caleb Prettyman, eight, Tristan Freemyer, four, Cade Henggeler, three, Jordan Murphy, two, and Mason Kelmel, one.

For North Nodaway, it was Coleman with 15 followed by Dakota Smyser and Cole Bird, three points each, Garrett Torres, two, and Arron Coleman and Tyler Bix, one each.