Chanute, KS – The Panthers took to the road last week to take on two Missouri schools in the West Plains Classics as they fell in the first game to Three Rivers on Friday afternoon 96 to 64 and then fell to host MSU - West Plains Saturday evening 93-80.  A week later the Panthers bounce back within their conference opener by taking down Dodge City Community College 106 to 91.
 
"This is a very tough stretch for us as we have five of our seven games on the road." Coach Jeremy Coombs said. "But at the end of the day, we should be a tougher team for playing such a hard schedule."
 
At the MSU-West Plains classic the Panthers defense was the main reason for losing on the road, but Coach Coombs knew this wouldn't be an easy task. In fact, the Panthers gave up more points in two games then they did in the prior four games.
 
"Honestly I think Three Rivers came out and just smacked us in the face," said Coombs "and the most disappointing this was we didn't fight back."
 
The Panthers would then take the week to regroup and some tough practices responded by taking down the Dodge City Community College Conqs (6-1 on the season) 106 to 91.  Saturday night in front of their home crowd wouldn't have any issue scoring as they took a 39 to 38 lead into the locker room and in the second half would explode for 67 points to rack up their third 100-point game of the season.
 
The Panthers will now turn their focus to the NJCAA #2 Hutch Blue Dragons. Neosho will travel Wednesday to Hutchinson for a 7:30pm tip.
 
"Hutch is one of the teams I haven't seen yet so we will start breaking down film Monday morning." said Coombs "The biggest thing is that we focus on us and what we do best…we have to play our game and continue to work every day in practice to get better."
 
For more information, go to www.goneosho.com or follow @GoNeoshoHoops or GoNeosho on Twitter for updates throughout the year.