NorthWood senior Savannah Feenstra signed Saturday night to continue her basketball career at Bethel College. Feenstra is shown above flanked by her parents Jen and Todd. In back are NorthWood assistant coach Gene Zercher, NorthWood head coach Adam Yoder, NorthWood AD Norm Sellers and Bethel coach Eric Gingerich (Photo provided)

NAPPANEE – The NorthWood girls basketball team got back to its winning ways Saturday night.

But just barely.

The host Panthers rallied in the final frame to edge past Goshen 30-28 in a Northern Lakes Conference contest in the Panther Pit.

NorthWood trailed 23-21 entering the fourth quarter before outscoring the RedHawks 9-5 in the final period for the league win. Goshen did not make a field goal in the fourth stanza.

The Panthers led 9-4 after the first quarter before Goshen came back to take a 15-13 halftime lead.

Maddy Payne came up big for NorthWood with a game-high 13 points. The sophomore scored five points in the pivotal fourth quarter as the Panthers snapped a three-game losing streak.

Kenzie Bergman finished with eight points and Savannah Feenstra had five for NorthWood. Kate Rulli and Neely Trenshaw each added two points for the Panthers.

NorthWood improves to 14-7 overall and goes to 5-1 in NLC play. The Panthers are in second place in the league standings behind Northridge. The Raiders clinched at least a share of its third straight NLC title by improving to 6-0 in league play with a win over Elkhart Memorial Friday night. NorthWood finishes its NLC season at Warsaw Thursday night. Warsaw is 4-2 in the conference after defeating Concord Saturday night.

The Panthers honored Feenstra, the lone senior player on this year’s squad, and senior manager Hannah Krok Saturday night.

Feenstra, a four-year varsity performer for coach Adam Yoder, also signed her letter-of-intent Saturday night to play at Bethel College. Feenstra has played in 97 varsity games at NorthWood and ranks 18th in scoring and seventh in rebounding all-time in the tradition-rich history of the program.

Jill Kissinger and Maggie Gallagher led Goshen with eight points each. The RedHawks, who saw their three-game winning streak stopped, fall to 12-9 overall and go to 2-4 in the NLC.

NorthWood won the junior varsity game 39-23.

NorthWood hosts Oregon-Davis Tuesday night and then plays at Warsaw Thursday night in their NLC and regular-season finale. The Panthers will then play in the Class 3-A Fairfield Sectional the week of Jan. 29.

Goshen plays at Elkhart Memorial Friday night to finish out NLC play.