Eagles fall to Hillcrest on Tuesday

Jan. 16—The Joplin Eagles had issues shooting the basketball on Tuesday night and fell to the Hillcrest Hornets 39-18 in a Central Ozark Conference matchup at Kaminsky Gymnasium.

Joplin junior Aiyana Kroll led the home team with 6 points on the night while senior Bailey Owens tacked on 4 points. Sophomore Alissa Owens had 3 points, sophomore Ava Wolf put in 2 points and senior Ashley Phillips, junior Isabella Cruze and senior Megan Meeker had 1 point each.

Hillcrest was led by junior Nevaeh Shockley, who scored 14 points, and junior Jamyra Parlette, who scored 8 points.

The loss drops Joplin to 4-10 on the season and 0-3 in the Central Ozark Conference.The game started slowly for both teams.

Joplin and Hillcrest were tied at 3-3 with 5:04 left in the first quarter before Hillcrest went on a 5-0 run to take an 8-3 lead after one quarter.

Joplin scored first in the second quarter to pull to within 8-5, but Hillcrest outscored the Eagles 10-2 the rest of the quarter to take a 18-7 lead into the locker room.

Hillcrest scored the first 4 points in the third quarter and maintained the momentum to outscore the Eagles 14-5 in the quarter and take a 32-12 lead into the final quarter.

The Eagles scored 6 points in the final frame to Hillcrest's seven points to make the final score 39-18.

The win improves Hillcrest's record to 7-6 on the season.

The Joplin girls will meet Aurora at 7:30 p.m. Monday, Jan. 22, in Aurora.