NorthWood Boys Basketball: Panthers Bounce Back Versus Jimtown
NAPPANEE — Following back-to-back losses to Westview and Fairfield, NorthWood’s boys basketball team was hoping to bounce back into the win column opposite Jimtown Tuesday night. The 10th-ranked Panthers were able to do that and then some with a comfortable, 56-21 win against the visiting Jimmies. Now they’ll have to wait and see if that victory came at a high price.
Senior starter Caleb Glick was sidelined with a knee injury early in the first period and sat out the remainder of Tuesday’s non-conference contest icing the injury. His status was uncertain after the game, but NorthWood head coach Aaron Wolfe said the team should know more Wednesday.
“I think we’ll know more tomorrow on the significance of the injury but obviously did not want to take any risks tonight in playing him more,” he explained.
Glick helped the Panthers (4-2) get off to a fast start before sustaining his injury a little over three minutes in. With Glick sidelined, the home team continued a string of 14 unanswered points to open Tuesday’s game at The Pit and led 20-5 after the first period. NorthWood never led by less than double figures the rest of the way, ballooning its cushion out to as many as 31 points midway through the fourth as the Panthers snapped a two-game skid that dropped them from third to 10th place in the AP’s Class 3A polls.
“It’s always helpful to rebound after a loss, and I thought our guys did a really good job tonight bringing energy,” said Wolfe.
“I thought we played very clean in the first six minutes of that basketball game. We were able to play with pace and move the basketball where we were getting good shots, and tonight we were able to capitalize on some of those open shots.”
The Panthers scored the ball with better than 53 percent accuracy, knocking down 23 of 43 shots while collecting 17 team assists, including five from Brad Delio and four by Kaden Gongwer. That ball sharing led to a balanced scoresheet with Caleb Lung putting up a game-high 12 points, followed by Delio’s 10 and Luke Holland’s nine, and eight points apiece from Gongwer and DeAndre Smart. All told, NorthWood got 18 points from its bench as eight different players made the scoring column in the win.
“Our offensive identity is going to be scoring with balance, and tonight was no different,” said Wolfe. “I thought we had a number of players that were efficient on the offensive end, and we were able to score baskets not only on the inside but on the perimeter, which we’re hoping in the future makes us difficult to guard.”
On the other end of the floor, the Panthers locked down the lane, surrendering only four points in the paint and taking away the Jimmies’ (2-3) ability to drive and kick to the perimeter in the process. The result was a woeful, 22 percent (9-of-41) shooting night by the guests. Austin Pearison led his team with 11 points, but Jimtown failed to get meaningful offensive production from anyone else while falling short of its first consecutive wins of the season.
“I thought our guys communicated well on the defensive end,” Wolfe said.
“I thought our basketball team stayed in front of dribble penetration tonight and stayed connected.”
NorthWood’s JV also earned a lopsided win Tuesday, dropping nearly 70 points in a 68-21 victory over its Jimtown counterparts. Ben Vincent paced the JV Panthers with 14 points, while Jason Borkholder scored 12, Trent Edwards finished with 10, and Toby Brenner checked in with nine as the home team scored at a 64 percent (29-of-45) clip and registered 16 assists.
Jimtown’s JV was paced by four points each from Josh Frye, Keaton Wolfe, Brayden Rice and Tony Pletcher.
NorthWood returns to Northern Lakes Conference play Friday when the Panthers host Plymouth at The Pit.