Cougars, Panthers Take Care Of Business
LAGRANGE – No major surprises in round one of the Class 3-A No. 20 girls basketball sectional at Lakeland Tuesday night. Central Noble pulled away to eliminate Wawasee in the first game while NorthWood withstood Tippecanoe Valley’s late charge to advance to Friday night’s semi-finals.
CENTRAL NOBLE 54, WAWASEE 31
Central Noble hit the shots it needed while Wawasee couldn’t find its shooting touch in game one. The three ball helped Central Noble in the first half, including a trey by Lydia Andrews with two seconds left in the half that put the Cougars up 28-20.
The key stretch for the game came early in the third, when an offensive rebound and an and-one on consecutive trips down the court gave Central a 34-22 lead and the distance it needed.
“We knew we could compete with them, that wasn’t a question,” stated Wawasee head coach Matt Carpenter. “We’re definitely disappointed with the result. My girls came in, they were playing to win tonight. There was no silver lining, or let’s try to lose by less. That’s not what we have, that’s not what we stand for. That’s not what our mentality was. We every bit expected to be in the basketball game for all 32 minutes.”
Andrews led Central Noble with 21 points and Bridgett Gray was right behind with 20 points, nine of her points coming from behind the arc. The Cougars hit six treys in the game.
Wawasee struggled from the floor all night, going 11-31 from the field and not hitting a shot in the fourth quarter. After Kennedy White scored to get Wawasee within five at 25-20 in the second, the Warriors hit just four field goals the remainder of the game.
Danielle Jenkins and Ella Beezley both finished with seven points to lead the Warriors, which bow out of the season 8-15 overall.
Central Noble (14-8) will take on Lakeland (14-8) in Friday’s first semi-final.
NORTHWOOD 48, TIPPECANOE VALLEY 39
NorthWood found itself approaching some familiar territory in game two, but Maddy Payne put a stop to it.
Valley shot its way into the conversation in the fourth quarter, but Payne made some big plays to help the Panthers fend off the Vikings. Kaydence Mellott, serving as the third or fourth option for Valley, canned three treys in the second half, her third as part of a hoop-and-harm to cut the lead to 40-37. Her missed free throw, however, was huge. NorthWood then went right down the court and had Kate Rulli hit a free throw, then Payne bulled her way inside and got to the line, extending the lead back to five.
Payne later grabbed an offensive rebound and put the shot in, ending any threat of a Valley upset of the No. 7-ranked Panthers.
“It just seemed early she kind of got rolling and our kids have always been good about that all year,” started NorthWood head coach Adam Yoder of Payne. “We find the kids that are hot, and get them the basketball. We were patient about it. We threw some nice passes from the arc to her, and she did a nice job of finishing around the rim.”
Payne would end up with 22 points, taking the turn as the post with the points. Tippecanoe Valley smothered the other big, Rulli, holding her to one field goal and five total points. Alea Minnich picked up some slack with seven points.
Valley, which trailed by as much as 15 points in the third quarter, rode the skill of Sidney Wagner, who scored 17 points. Mellott ended with her nine points and Jillian Walls concluded her career with six points.
“I was more worried from the standpoint that they are a very, very good defensive team,” noted Tippecanoe Valley head coach Chris Kindig. “So if you spend all your time worrying about stopping their two post players, they have nice shooters around them. They hit some threes (three) tonight. If you worry about that and not about a way to score against them, you are still going to get beat by 20 because you don’t score enough points.
“We saw that when we played them the first time, we were up one point at the half and we didn’t score in the third quarter and I think had five points in the fourth quarter.”
NorthWood won the Jan. 14 matchup 49-23 at The Pit.
NorthWood’s win sets up a rematch with West Noble (10-12) in the second semi-final. The Panthers (22-3) are more than aware of how it was booted from last year’s sectional by the host Chargers.
“I think they’re well aware there’s a target on their back,” Yoder said. “We feel that a little bit every year. I think that nobody’s got some love lost for NorthWood over the last 30 years in girls basketball. This group has really embraced the idea of stepping up to that big challenge.”