Wildcats earn 17-point win in opening round of Neosho Holiday Classic

Dec. 27—NEOSHO, Mo. — Neosho used an 18-point third quarter to stretch a 6-point advantage at halftime into a 13-point lead heading into the final stanza.

From there, the Wildcats (4-4) maintained that advantage and earned a 64-47 victory over Westwood High School of Memphis, Tennessee, in the opening round of the Neosho Holiday Classic on Wednesday night at Neosho High School.

"Winning that first round of the holiday tournament is always big," Neosho head coach Zane Culp said. "You get to stay in your home main gym. We probably turned the ball over too much, but we did a lot of other good things."

The basketball tournament, featuring boys and girls teams, has become one of the most anticipated sporting events in the Four-State Area, drawing competition from as far away as San Diego, Phoenix and Birmingham, Alabama. The event started in 1955.

In addition to watching local players and teams, the Neosho Holiday Classic is known for bringing in some of the best prep talent in the nation, some of whom have gone on to Division I teams and even the NBA.

Neosho run

On Wednesday, Kaiden Asberry's four 3-pointers in the third quarter highlighted the run for Neosho. Those were the only triples in the game for Asberry as he finished with 14 points and eight rebounds. Some of his 3-pointers were on the receiving end of a Collier Hendricks pass.

"They (Westwood) were switching their defense up a lot and going man and then different kinds of zones. We had to spread the ball out and find our shooters," Culp said. "Kaiden didn't shoot it well in the first half, but we had a feeling he would in the second half. He's been shooting it well for us all year.

"We did a lot of good things. We hit outside shots, we made inside shots, it was just a good spread-out game."

Neosho is back in action at 3:30 p.m. Thursday in the high school gym as it will meet Huntsville (12-5). Huntsville defeated Seneca 53-51 earlier Wednesday in the junior high gym. Westwood will play Seneca at 10:30 a.m.

"Huntsville's really good. Their coach does a good job. They play really hard. They're super organized. They're fun to compete against as well. We're just ready to get out here in front of our home fans and put on a good show," Culp said.

Hendricks was setting his teammates up all night long and getting his own buckets while he was at it. Hendricks tallied 17 points and 11 in the first half behind 6-of-10 shooting. He also registered six assists and six rebounds.

Neosho was able to use a cutting offense and quick ball movement to get plenty of points around the basket when Asberry wasn't knocking down a 3-pointer.

Westwood (5-3) had more size than Neosho, but the Wildcats were able to outrebound them 34-20. They also shared the ball more with 14 assists in comparison with the Longhorns' 6. Culp noted that it has been a focus the past few days leading up to this tournament to work on the rebounding. He believes that was an area the team needed improvement and said it was "nice to see them bounce back" in the rebounding category Wednesday night.

Along with those assists, the Wildcats were sharing the ball to multiple people throughout the game with four finishing with double-digit points. Along with Hendricks' 17 and Asberry's 14, Ty Harris and Colton Southern added 14 apiece. Those four were all but 5 of Neosho's 64 points.

Neosho grabbed its second lead of the game when Hendricks knocked down his only shot from beyond the arc late in the opening period to make it 15-12. The Wildcats didn't relinquish their lead from that point on. Their lead grew to as many as 19 late in the fourth quarter.

Westwood was led by Carlton Hubbert with 16 and Cameron Foxx with 12 points.

As a team, the Wildcats shot 52% overall and 33% from deep. The Longhorns were just 38% and 23.5% from the respective areas.