CARTHAGE — Despite the Tigers taking their first loss off the season, a 67-58 defeat at the hands of Kickapoo on Thursday at the Lady Tigers Invitational, Carthage coach Scott Moore was proud of the way his team performed.
"We started the first quarter and the third quarter really well," Moore said. "We needed to finish both halves better. I think that was where they made their runs on us—late in the first half and they kind of pulled away from us (at the end). 
"They had a size advantage over us. It wasn't because of a lack of effort, but maybe lack of size. At no point would I question the effort of our girls. Those second, third and fourth chances they got on offense was just because they were 6-foot-2 and we were 5-7. Loved the effort from our girls. Loved the focus and the fight. If we bring that effort the rest of the season, we are going to win a lot of ball games this year.
"I walked in our locker room tonight and gave our girls a round of applause. … If we continue to play that hard, every one of our opponents are going to be on notice that we bring it every game. … We probably played better tonight than we did last night against a better opponent tonight. This wasn't something we have to bounce back from because we took a loss but we played hard and we played well."
Carthage's speed on offense proved to be a problem for Kickapoo early in the contest, as the Tigers jumped out to a 9-5 lead after two baskets each from Kianna Yates and Hailey Fullerton, who hit a 3-pointer from the top of the key during the stretch. Shortly after, Kickapoo turned to the full-court press in order to slow down the transition offense of Carthage. Trading baskets the remainder of the quarter, the Chiefs took a 17-16 lead with three seconds left in the first quarter on an offensive rebound and putback basket by Madie Barrett.
"I thought our athleticism with our guard play was better than theirs," Moore said. "We have two guards who are track stars in Kianna Yates and Katie Crowe. They don't have the athletes that fast at their guard spots, but they are tall. … I thought our athleticism early on was an advantage."
After a tightly-contested first quarter, Kickapoo's size advantage showed up in the second period, converting multiple second and third-chance opportunities at the rim. 
"That is one of the things I told the girls in the locker room—we will be working on boxing out in practice tomorrow," Moore said. "We have done that a fair amount, it's just different boxing out a (6-foot-2) girl from Kickapoo than it is your (5-7) or (5-8) teammate in practice."
The Chiefs started the second quarter on a 10-1 run to build a 27-17 advantage near the five-minute mark. Indya Green accounted for six of the points in the run.
Kickapoo stretched the lead to 15 points multiple times in the second quarter before the Tigers closed the first half on a 6-2 run to trim the deficit to 41-30 by the intermission.
"We talked in the locker room about how we wanted to keep that intensity up," Moore said. "We wanted to keep being the team that is attacking. Our word for the year is relentless. … We just reminded them of that at halftime, and our girls used that as kind of a flip-the-switch trigger."
Carthage continued the intensity out of the break, outscoring Kickapoo 11-2 through the first four minutes to cut the lead all the way down to two, 43-41. Fullerton — who scored 15 points in the second half while leading Carthage with a team-high 20 points — had a pair of 3-pointers in the run as well as an offensive rebound and a putback score.
"I thought this was probably the hardest I've seen her play for 32 minutes," Moore said of Fullerton. "And not that she is a kid who takes plays off, I'm not saying that. She went to another level, was more intense, never stopped and was always aggressive. I felt like she was aggressive on the boards, she was aggressive on defense, and offensively, she was aggressive. That set the tone for us."
Once again, the size of the Chiefs allowed Kickapoo to answer with eight straight points after putting in work on the offensive glass, with three of the four scoring possessions being converted on second or third-chance opportunities to push the lead back to double digits, 51-41. 
"Part of it, I was pleased with because our defense created a missed shot," Moore said of Kickapoo's extra scoring opportunities. "The second part is, we just need to be more physical and start moving bodies down there."
Kickapoo's advantage hovered around the 10-point margin for most of the final quarter. Carthage cut the lead to seven points inside the final minute but got no closer before the end of regulation.
Yates finished with 15 points to go along with Fullerton's 20 to give Carthage two players in double figures. Katie Crowe and Lauren Wilson each scored six.
Bella Fontelroy led Kickapoo with 20 points, while Green had 16. Kya Johnson added 11.
Carthage wraps up the Lady Tigers Invitational with a 1:30 p.m. matchup against Webb City on Saturday.
-Lucas Davis, SoMo Sports