By Ryan Atkinson

sports@joplinglobe.com

CARL JUNCTION, Mo. — The Carthage Tigers, for the most part, kept the Carl Junction Bulldogs out of their comfortable run-and-gun offense, and held Mannie DeCastro — CJ’s star on Friday night — to just five points.

The Tigers, however, didn’t have an answer for Tesia Lahm.

Lahm, Carl Junction’s 5-foot-6 senior guard, scored a game-high 25 points and led the Bulldogs to a 55-42 win over Carthage in the title game of the St. John’s Sports Care Girls Basketball Classic at Carl Junction High School.

“Tesia played a great game,” Carl Junction coach Brad Shorter said. “She is always a threat to score and she just went out there and did what she always does.”

Lahm, who averaged 18.4 points last season, was 10-of-18 from the field and 5-of-8 from the foul line. Her jumper at the 6:27 mark of the first quarter was the game’s first points, and her eight points in the second quarter sparked the Bulldogs to a 24-14 halftime lead.

Despite those numbers, a spot on the all-tournament team and the title of championship game MVP, Lahm turned the attention to the rest of the Bulldogs.

“I have to give the credit to my teammates,” she said. “I couldn’t have scored those points without them ... they were amazing all tournament long.”

Carthage coach Bobby Waggoner said Lahm was the key for Carl Junction.

“We just couldn’t keep her in front of us,” Waggoner said. “She’s a great player and it’s awfully hard to hold her down.”

Bulldog junior Devyn McPherson provided the defensive muscle down low for Carl Junction. The 5-foot-8 forward was a big reason the Tigers couldn’t make full use of their height advantage.

“If there were a defensive MVP for this tournament, Devyn would win it,” Shorter said. “She came up huge for us all tournament ... she shut people down.”

The Bulldogs got buckets from four different players — Lahm, McPherson, DeCastro and Amanda Storm — and jumped out to an 8-2 lead.

Carthage scored five straight to cut the lead to 8-7, but the Bulldogs — spurred by Storm’s 3-pointers — went on a 9-3 run and led 17-10 with 5:11 left in the second quarter.