Nixa’s Norah Clark held her own against Jefferson City’s Hannah Linthacum in a matchup of two future NCAA D-I players Wednesday.
Clark, a Tennessee-Martin signee, scored 23 points and Linthacum, a Mizzou signee, had a game-high 28.
Clark and the Lady Eagles prevailed 68-47.
“You look at the big height difference. That’s what I’m going to see when I get to the college level,” the 5-foot-10 Clark said, referring to the 6-3 Linthacum. “It’s fun to play against a talent like that. It prepares me for the next level.”
Clark and Linthacum often defended each other.
“Two high-level payers going at it, that’s fun to watch,” Nixa coach Jennifer Perryman said.
Linthacum hails from what has been the first family of girls basketball statewide since Hayley and Kayley Frank graduated from Strafford. Hannah’s older sisters, Micah and Sarah, already play for Mizzou.
Clark felt she and her teammates kept Linthacum from a dominant night. Despite her 28 points, Jefferson City trailed by 15-20 points most of the second half.
“We didn’t want to let her have a breakout night,” Clark said. "We contained her the best we could.”
“We were trying to double her, but got too spread out and there were some isolations,” Perryman said.
Linthacum earned what she got. She only had a couple putbacks.
“We were trying to face-guard her to keep her off the boards,” Perryman said. “We did a great job rebounding.”
Clark was pleased with her offensive performance. She upped her steak of scoring in double figures to nine games, but felt in recent games she was guilty of taking too many off-balanced shots.
“Sometimes, my shots are circus shots,” Clark said. “I’ve worked on being balanced and going up strong.
“I’m a simple player when it comes my moves,” she added. “I’m not a very flashy player. I have some moves in my bag. But I stick to the simple stuff because it works for me.”
Lily Mahy netted 15 points for Nixa (14-4). She had three 3-pointers, including a 25-footer at the buzzer to end the first half.
“I’ve told her you’ve got to hit the knock-down 3s and also be ready to go to the rim and she did a good job of doing that,” Perryman said.
Nixa 68, Jefferson City 47
JEFFERSON CITY (47) — Ewing 2 3-4 8, Woodard 0 0-1 0, Schmidt 0 1-2 1, Avey 1 0-0 3, Graham 2 2-4 6, Hearn 0 1-2 1, Linthacum 9 9-11 28.
NiXA (68) — Mahy 6 0-0 15, Conway 2 5-7 11, Jones, Clark 7 9-9 23, Teter 1 0-2 2, Bray 2 1-2 6, Hammitt 1 0-0 3, Grant 3 0-0 6, Ferguson 0 2-4 2.
Jeff City 11 12 11 13 - 47
Nixa 19 13 18 18 - 68
3-point goals - Mahy 3, Conway 2, Bray, Hammitt, Linthacum, Ewing, Avey.
