Pat Dailey, for Headliner Sports
We all watched as George Bailey discovered "It's A Wonderful Life" managing Bailey Brothers Building & Loan in the traditional Christmas classic.Â
In contrast, for Nixa coach Jay Osborne and his players, it wasn't a wonderful Saturday, as they left the Bailey brothers alone.Â
The Eagles' 61-48 loss to Bentonville West, Arkansas, at the NorthArk Border War Shootout was anything but a Nixa classic and certainly left Osborne in no holiday mood.
"It was an ugly afternoon," Osborne said. "I can't think of anything real positive that happened for us. We'll try to learn from it and move on."
Nixa yielded 27 points to Dillon Bailey and 12 to Dawson Bailey. The brothers combined for nine 3-pointers.
They had an open look on the great majority of their 3-point attempts, no matter if the Eagles' defense was applying man-to-man pressure or operating out of a zone.
"The scouting report (on Bentonville West) says they have two good shooters. But we couldn't find them, zone or man," Osborne said. "You've got to know who can and can't shoot. We knew who their shooters were. You're supposed to be able to find shooters out of your zone defense pretty easily. But we didn't find them. Part of that is coaching, part of that is effort and part of that is players on the floor not playing intelligently."
"We were either leaving a guy wide open in man or couldn't find their shooters in our zone," Eagles guard Brandon Gordon added. "We were going back and forth to see which (defense) would work better. Shooters shoot. We've got to be able to get out and guard them."
The Baileys teamed for four 3-pointers in the first quarter, as West was in control for most of the first half. After the teams were tied at 25-all at halftime, the Wolverines surged to a 39-30 lead, with Dillon Bailey netting a trio of 3s in the third quarter.
Nixa (3-5) mounted a final rally and pulled to within a bucket, 39-37,  at the beginning of the fourth quarter. But Dillon Bailey netted nine fourth quarter points and the Wolverines pulled away for good.
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