Ozark girls coach Bret Nagel got what he wanted out of Tuesday’s 39-25 win over Southside.

More than the win, he’ll watch video to further evaluate his roster.

“I don’t care what the final score is; we obviously want to win,” Nagel said. “But the main thing is we got some good out of it.”

The Lady Hillbillies (1-1) travel to Har-Ber on Thursday, to further test their mettle.

Against Southside, Ozark took control of the first half with a 14-0 scoring run. They led 26-10 at the half and were firmly in control by 20 (33-13) in the third quarter.

But to Southside’s credit, the Mavericks actually sliced the deficit to 11 (34-23) in the fourth quarter.

“I was very proud of our effort,” Southside coach Steve Brown said. “We talked about that at halftime. The first game, there were some jitters and playing on the road we were nervous. But they kind of settled down and we were able to execute our offense in the second half.”

Sparked by senior Melanie Rice, the Mavericks actually outscored Ozark 15-12 in the second half. At one point, the Mavericks were in the midst of a 13-3 scoring spree.

Rice led the Mavericks with seven points, and teammate Erin Graham added seven.


Ozark’s Kayla Barnett led all scorers with nine points.

“We’re trying to play as tough of competition as we can play, and we did that on purpose,” Nagel said. “We’re trying to get to where we can play in our conference.”

Down 33-15 after three quarters, the Mavericks’ whittled the deficit to 11 (36-25) on the strength of Rice’s free throw.

But Barnett scored on the ensuing possession to extend the lead back to 13.

Ozark 60, Southside 36

BOYS — Senior Ethan Masingale scored 15 points and Jaxon Harris set an early tone with two 3-pointers as the Ozark Hillbillies rolled to a 60-36 win over the short-handed Southside Mavericks on Tuesday in nonconference play.

The Mavericks, without three starters still playing football, were down 19-6 after one quarter and 33-11 at the half.


Josh Merrill led the Mavericks with 11 points.

Also for Ozark, sophomore Garrett Schaffer added 14 points and Ethan Dorrough hit four 3-pointers and finished with an even dozen.

Ozark (2-0) led 52-23 after three, then sent the game into the Arkansas Activities Association 30-point mercy rule when Masingale buried a 3-pointer from the top of the circle early in the fourth quarter.


