Box Score The Neosho County Panthers faced an unexpected test Friday (Nov. 9) when they hosted the Bethel College junior varsity. The Threshers are coming off a season in which they won only four games, but former Jayhawk Alonzo Jamison has them heading in the right direction. In a game that saw three ties and 8 lead changes, the Panthers trailed by as many as 17 points in the first half and 7 in the second half, but battled back to win their third game of the season 95-89.
 
The Threshers came out hot right from the opening tip and led for much of the first half. The Threshers shot the ball well in the first half and led by 16 points with 6:12 left in the half. Neosho County slowly began to chip away at the lead and cut it to 5 points at half time.
 
The Panthers continued to cut into the Thresher lead in the second half and took their first lead since the 18:46 mark in the first half on Keegan Oyugi's basket with 14:22 left in the game. The Panthers run would continue their run and D'Marco Smith would knock down a three to push the lead to 10.
 
Bethel College would go on a 15-6 run to get it back to a 1 point game with 5 minutes left in the game. The teams would trade baskets until Neosho finally regained the lead for good with 1:24 to go. They would ice the game knocking down five of six free throw attempts in the final 30 seconds of the game to secure the win.
 
Despite shooting well from the line in the final minute, the Panthers struggled from the line for the game as they shot 46% for the game.
 
A pair of Panthers had big games for the Panthers as Mark Gray and Jake Stoppel both had double-doubles. Stoppel scored 14 points for the Panthers to go with a career high 13 rebounds while Mark Gray had 15 points to go with 10 rebounds for the night. For the second game in a row D'Marco Smith led the Panthers in scoring, finishing the game with 17.
 
The Panthers improve to 3-0 on the season with the win. They will be back in action Monday when the host Ottawa University at 7:00pm.