Houston Lady Tigers coach Brent Kell admittedly didn’t see this coming.
Facing Mountain Grove for the third time following a pair of double-digit losses, the Lady Tigers raced out to an early lead and surprisingly cruised past the Lady Panthers 45-30 Tuesday night in the opening round of the Mansfield Tournament.
“We had unbelievable effort out of everybody that stepped on the floor,” Kell said. “To be honest with you, it was a little unexpected by me. As a coach, you always want that effort. I just hadn’t seen it on a consistent basis this year out of our kids.”
Junior Erica Keeney led Houston with 17 points. Danielle Pounds scored 13 points.
Kell said his team finally handled Mountain Grove’s pressure. The Lady Panthers defeated Houston 38-27 last Thursday and by 26 points on Jan. 11.
“In the previous games, we weren’t able to run an offense at all. They put tremendous pressure on you all over the floor,” Kell said. “We worked hard on just getting the ball into our offense and sets, and it really paid off.”
The Lady Tigers led 13-3 after the first quarter and 21-8 at the half. The advantage stretched to as many as 21 in the second half.”
“It was a completely different team. They’ve proven to themselves they can play hard, play well and execute,” Kell said. “It’s just one of those deals that a team that has struggled all year — can they build off this?”
On Thursday, Keeney had a team-best eight points in an 11-point loss to the Lady Panthers to complete the Mountain Grove Tournament. Tory Burgess scored seven.
JUNIOR VARSITY: Alexa Ichord scored eight points in the JV Lady Tigers’ 26-15 loss Thursday to Mountain Grove.
Box scores
VARSITY
Tuesday’s game
Houston 13 8 15 9 — 45
Mtn. Grove 3 5 10 12 — 30
HOUSTON (5-12) — Moore 0 2-4 2. Pounds 4 4-5 13. Burgess 2 0-0 6. Honig 3 1-2 7. Herndon 0 1-2 1. HKell 0 0-2 0. Keeney 7 2-5 16. Totals 16 10-20 45.
MTN. GROVE — Hiler 1 0-0 2. Minge 2 1-2 3. Feston 3 1-3 9. BHalford 2 2-7 7. Dugger 0 1-4 1. Watson 1 0-0 2. MHalford 0 0-1 0. Williams 2 2-6 6. Totals 11 7-23 30.
3-pointers: Houston 3 (Burgess 2, Pounds); Mtn. Grove 1 (BHalford).
Thursday’s game
Houston 8 2 6 11 — 27
Mtn. Grove 10 9 6 13 — 38
HOUSTON (4-12) — Moore 1 2-2 4. Pounds 0 2-5 2. KKell 0 1-2 1. Burgess 3 0-1 7. Honig 0 1-2 1. Adey 0 1-2 1. HKell 1 1-2 3. Keeney 3 2-2 8. Totals 8 10-18 27.
MTN. GROVE — Hiler 0 8-9 8. Minge 1 0-0 2. Feston 2 0-0 4. BHalford 0 2-4 2. Dugger 0 0-2 0. Watson 4 1-2 9. MHalford 3 2-4 8. Williams 1 3-7 5. Totals 11 16-28 38.
3-pointers: Houston 1 (Burgess); Mtn. Grove 0.
JUNIOR VARSITY
Thursday’s game
Houston 6 0 4 5 — 15
Mtn. Grove 4 6 4 12 — 26
HOUSTON (4-9) — Preheim 0 0-2 0. Ichord 3 2-3 8. Reese 1 0-0 2. Sillyman 0 0-1 0. Herndon 2 1-6 5. Totals 6 3-12 15.