Luke Holland and Matt Dutkowski battle for a rebound with Edwardsburg’s Shane Montoya and Conner Nelson, while NorthWood’s Trent Edwards and Jordan BeMiller look on during a Dan Gunn Holiday Tournament game in Nappanee Thursday night. (Photos by James Costello)

NAPPANEE — Coming off of a holiday break, the NorthWood boys basketball team got off to a relatively slow start against visiting Edwardsburg Thursday night.

It didn’t take the Panthers long to get their feet back under them, however, and they ultimately rolled to a lopsided, 77-32 win over the Eddies in the late semifinal at the Dan Gunn Holiday Tournament at The Pit. They’ll take on Mishawaka — a 46-35 winner over South Bend Clay in the tourney-opener earlier Thursday — in the championship tonight, with tip-off slated for 7:45 p.m.

NorthWood (6-2) — which hadn’t played a game in nearly two full weeks since a down-to-the-wire win over Plymouth back on Dec. 15 — traded leads with Edwardsburg four times over the opening period before grabbing a 17-9 lead at the first quarter break, then scored eight unanswered points at the start of a dominant, 24-6 second frame that put the Panthers firmly in control.

In the end, the 13-day layover did little if anything to halt NorthWood’s progress as the Panthers won their third straight.

“I think what probably I was most pleased about was bouncing back after a long layover. We’re just out of our routine,” explained NorthWood head coach Aaron Wolfe. “It’s a really, really neat thing about Christmas break is that you break the monotony a little bit, but it’s also hard to get back into a competitive experience like we did tonight.”

Edwardsburg’s 2-3 zone didn’t help matters much early, but some prolific 3-point shooting changed the game’s complexion. The Panthers rained down 7 of 12 (58.3 percent) triples in the first half, including 6 of 8 during the lopsided second quarter, to break the game open and extend the Eddies’ defense.

“I think we were fortunate. I think our shot selection for the most part on those 3s were good shots,” said Wolfe. “Some games you’re going to knock those in, and when they are playing zone and kind of packing it in like they were, it’s always helpful to make some shots from the perimeter.”

Kaden Gongwer lays the ball in off the glass between Tre Harvey and Chase Sager Thursday.

Kaden Gongwer dealt much of the damage as he knocked down 4 of 5 triples in the second period on his way to a game-high 18 points. He added four steals, three assists and four rebounds in a strong all-around game for NorthWood.

“He gave us a boost. Any time that he’s shooting the ball from the perimeter, he really stretches the defense,” said Wolfe of the junior point guard. “He’s got good range, and tonight it just seemed like every ball that was leaving his hand was true and had a chance to go in. He gives us a huge boost when he’s making shots from the perimeter.”

But Gongwer was far from the home team’s only hero Thursday night, as he led a quartet of four Panthers in double figures.

Caleb Lung also finished with 11 points — mostly earned at the line with 7-of-8 free throw shooting as NorthWood enjoyed a plus-14 advantage at the stripe — while fellow starter Brad Delio scored 10 with three assists and three rebounds. Luke Holland converted 4 of 5 shots in the second period on his way to 11 points and five rebounds off the bench, and the Panthers got a number of quality performances from their reserves as a total of 13 players saw significant minutes with Wolfe going to his bench early and often during a second half that saw his team already leading by 30 with 6:35 remaining in the third period.

“We had some stretches tonight where we were very consistent, and what I appreciated the most is that we had a number of guys contribute, and we’re going to need that in the future, tomorrow night being one of them,” said Wolfe.

Chase Sager scored 10 points attacking off the dribble as the only Edwardsburg player to finish in double figures Thursday. But the Eddies were plagued by 23 turnovers — compared to 10 by their hosts — which the Panthers punished them for with 29 points.

DeAndre Smart scores a layup along the baseline while Caleb Lung looks on.

“When you probably just kind of look at the story of the game, they turned the ball over 23 times, and for us when you look at points off of turnovers, what lopsides this game is we had 29 points off of turnovers and they had two. So that’s plus-27; that’s just a huge margin,” Wolfe said.

Next up for NorthWood is Mishawaka (5-4), which used a 12-3 run to build a 30-19 halftime advantage over winless Clay (0-8) en route to a 46-35 win. Dylan Hall scored 19 points off 7-of-9 shooting and hauled in seven rebounds in the win, while Brayden Saxton paced the Colonials with 15 points. Clay will play Edwardsburg in the consolation final at 6 p.m.

“I know we have our hands full tomorrow night. Mishawaka is going to come in, and they’re very sound and they have good players so it should be a neat championship experience,” said Wolfe.

“They looked like they were in control of the first game. They look like they’re going to be hard to play against defensively. They’re going to be hard to play against offensively, and they’re difficult to play against in rebounding. It’s going to be a great challenge for us, obviously. I think that we have a chance to get better at the other end of that game.”