Kendal Miller shoots a free throw during NorthWood’s 36-22 win against Benton Central at the LaPorte Girls Basketball Semi-State. (Photos by Mike Deak)

LAPORTE – Get out the whiteboard and the marker, it’s check mark time.

Coach Adam Yoder and his NorthWood Panthers can check the ‘semi-state champions’ box after dismantling Benton Central, 36-22, at the LaPorte Girls Basketball Semi-state Saturday afternoon. It wasn’t the prettiest win NorthWood has had this season, but as of now, the biggest.

“Today, with our defense, we made our own luck,” Yoder said. “We may not have played as pretty on offense as we could have, but there is no way that we were going to let them score. We did a such a great job extending the lead in the second half. So happy from these girls. They deserve it so much.”

NorthWood showed the mettle it has all season long, and did it against a Benton program that had been to the state finals a season ago. After Benton had sliced NorthWood’s lead to 20-18, NorthWood made a championship run. The Black Swish scored 16 straight points as Benton could only stand and watch. Kendal Miller hit a putback layup after NorthWood took three uncontested shots at the basket to grab a 26-18 lead. Miller also hit a 10-foot jumper as NorthWood was feeling really good.

NorthWood’s Karlie Fielstra works the perimeter against Benton’s Kyrah Tucker.

“During those moments I’m really confident,” said Miller, who finished with nine points and six rebounds. “I want the ball in my hands so I can knock down the shot. I feel like those are the moments when I’m most confident.”

Maddy Payne scored six points in the fourth, her steal and two opened the frame. Benton had very little on its roster to challenge Payne and Kate Rulli inside, and the twin towers took advantage to the tune of 25 combined points, 15 rebounds and six steals. Whereas NorthWood has had either Payne or Rulli do the damage on a per-game basis, both girls were a force in front of a good bulk of the Wanee community.

“The biggest thing for us was that we were trying to get downhill with our guards, and they shut us down,” said Benton Central head coach David Baxter. “Our kids are 5’4″, 5’3″ trying to deal with their bigger players. Then you have Payne and Rulli inside and we just couldn’t guard that once they got going. Kudos to them for getting to next week.”

Benton (26-4) came into the game averaging 64 points per game, and at the half were sitting with nine points while NorthWood carried a seven-point lead. The Bison’s leading scorer, Audrey Strawsma, was just three under her average with 12 points, but it fell precipitously from there. Kelsey Coffman (13.4 ppg) finished with just three, Tressa Senesac (10.4 ppg) had only four and Kennedy Tolen, who had 22 in the regional semi-finals against Garrett, was held scoreless. The 22 points from Benton Central is the second lowest point total of their season, only a 20 against undefeated 4-A juggernaut Northwestern was lower.

Benton’s fans sent around a collection plate to try to generate any momentum it could get.

“The start to our second half was brutal,” Yoder said. “ We didn’t do any of the things we talked about at halftime. Then we started doing them after we calmed down a little bit. Then we were excellent. We kept getting it inside, kept taking open shots. That was a big-time gut check because they are the more experienced team. Benton Central has been through this, great program, most recently went to state last year. It was going to be a challenge, but yeah, that was a big stretch. Once it got to 12, I knew it was over.”

NorthWood (27-3) will advance to its third state championship and its first since 1999, when NorthWood won its only state title. The Black Swish will get No. 1 Salem (25-3) in the championship, playing the 6 p.m. game at Banker’s Life Fieldhouse. Salem defeated Brownstown Central in the southern semi-state, 57-42.

“We’ve worked really hard at our defense all week preparing for this game,” Miller said. “When we started to frustrate them and held them to nine points in the first half, we felt pretty good. But we closed the game out, and that was important. We’ve got one more week to do it again.”

Reality set in for NorthWood head coach Adam Yoder as his team finished off a semi-state championship.