By Stephen Buus
Lockwood — Usually a neighborhood rivalry game brings out the best in both teams, as they battle shot for shot from tip to buzzer for every last point with plenty of emotional moments along the way.
Thursday’s contest in Lockwood was not one of those games.
Knowing they had a big advantage in talent and experience going in, the Lockwood Lady Tigers made quick work of their Dade County rivals from Greenfield, routing the Lady Wildcats 46-14 in Spring River Valley Conference action. Lockwood pushed the pace early and often on offense and smothered Greenfield on defense, leading 15-2 after one quarter and never looking back.
Despite the disparity, Lockwood did not take its opponent lightly.
“We’ve had a couple of tough losses the last four games,” said Lady Tiger coach Kara Kinney. “So we wanted to come back and really play hard and play our game. I think that we did that, especially against Greenfield, who is our rival.
“I think both teams played really hard, though. You always want that from both teams.”
Junior Rylee Neill led all scorers with 14 points. Midway through the third quarter, she scored an unbelievable basket-and-one on a scoop shot underneath the goal while going to her knees after getting tripped up by two defenders. The play put the Lady Tigers up 37-7 at the time.
“She does that a lot in practice, those kind of things,” Kinney said of Neill. “So I’m not surprised it went in, but it was a pretty awesome shot.”
Greenfield had 26 turnovers in the loss.
Lockwood improved to 12-5 and 3-0 in the Spring River Valley. The Lady Tigers face Liberal on Saturday in the championship game of the weather-delayed Golden City Tournament.
Greenfield fell to 3-10 and 0-2. The Wildcats next play Jasper on Saturday.
Greenfield 2 1 6 5—14
Lockwood 15 12 17 2—46
Greenfield: Lauren Jones 4, Taylor Burns 4, Kiarri Mai 4, Payton Trask 2.
Lockwood: Rylee Neill 14, Noble Foster 9, Moriah Coose 8, Olivia Nentrup 4, Hope Dunagan 4, Heather Brynes 3, Makenzie Purinton 2.
