The Tigers closed to within four points one time, but Carl Junction began pulling away in the second half and took a 50-30 lead on McPherson’s jumper at the 4:18 mark of the fourth quarter.

“I felt like our defensive pressure helped us out a lot tonight,” Shorter said. “It was kind of a dead game at times and it wasn’t really a fast-paced game like we want, but our defense stepped up.”

Carthage kept the Bulldog offense relatively in check, but the Tigers shot just 35 percent (16-of-45) from the field and 38 percent (7-of-18) from the foul line.

“We didn’t really let them run wild like they are capable of doing,” Waggoner said. “We just couldn’t get the ball in the basket, especially early. We were down 10 points at halftime and that’s pretty hard to make up against a team like Carl Junction.”

The Tigers got 17 points from 6-foot junior Denise Taylor and 12 from 5-4 junior Ryann Hartley.

Carl Junction’s Lindsey Gordon added eight points after Lahm’s 25 while McPherson and Lauren McRae each had six. DeCastro and Storm chipped in with five a piece.

Webb City 58, Nevada 43

The Webb City Cardinals bounced back nicely from their semifinal loss to Carl Junction and ran past the Nevada Tigers for third place.

The Cardinals outscored Nevada 22-8 in the second quarter and carried a 39-20 lead into the locker room. Webb City led 52-28 at the end of three quarters, but the Tigers outscored the Cardinals by nine in the fourth.

Nicole Hudson scored 16 for the Cardinals while Kaitlin Jaeger added 13 and Sharenda Campbell chipped in with 12.

Nevada scored 27 of its 43 points from behind the arc with nine 3-pointers. Kadee Hughes, Jordan Bell, Taylor Means and Heather Thomas each nailed a pair of 3s while Lindsay Rice hit one.

Rice, Bell and Means each scored eight points, Hughes had seven and Thomas added six.

East Newton 44, Seneca 35

Lindsey Bragg scored 13 points to lead the Patriots past Seneca in the fifth-place game.

Melea Cook and Jacci Yust had 12 and 10 points, respectively, for the Indians.