NorthWood’s girls basketball team poses after winning the Class 3-A state title, 37-29, over Salem Saturday night. (Photos by Mike Deak)

INDIANAPOLIS – All season, NorthWood girls basketball head coach Adam Yoder has said he didn’t care if his team won pretty or ugly, just win.

His team just won Saturday night.

NorthWood capped off its final performance of the season, a first half to forget and a second half they will remember forever in a 37-29 result over Salem to win the IHSAA Class 3-A Girls Basketball State Championship.

“The great eight,” stated Yoder, “They may not be Indiana All-Stars by themselves. But, together, they are state champs today.”

After starting the game in a 7-0 hole, NorthWood would rally back to tie the game at seven after a pair of baskets by Maddy Payne and a key three at the end of the quarter by Reagan Hartman.

As the game ground to a 21-20 NorthWood lead after three quarters, it was beginning to look very, very familiar to how NorthWood got to Banker’s Life Fieldhouse. Grinding out wins with its defense and letting it’s bigs do the dirt inside.

A pair of Bre Wise feeds inside to Payne got the Black Swish up six at 28-22 and the predominantly red-clad faithful from northern Indiana could start to feel it.

Maddy Payne led NorthWood with 19 points and 10 rebounds in a swan song to remember.

Salem, ranked No. 1 in Class 3-A coming in, hung around, using an Abigail Ratts bucket to cut the lead to four at 28-24, but that would be about it from the Lions. Payne would hit four more free throws and Kendal Miller stepped to the charity stripe to hit 3-4 as Salem was desperate for stops.

Lions coach Jerry Hickey called off the dogs after Miller hit her two tosses to push the lead to 11, conceding its only trip to the state finals and giving NorthWood its second title in three tries, its first since 1999. NorthWood was 10-12 from the line in the fourth quarter and 15-18 overall. Salem was just 1-6 from the line.

“They really take away driving options in the paint and play a good pack line,” Hickey said. “And if you do get to the paint, you’ve got two six-footers, one 6-1 (Payne) with a lot of range that’s going to play college volleyball. So she’s incredibly athletic, and that’s tough. Overall, with the exception of Lettie (Nice), we’re pretty small. We start four guards, our starting point guard is 5-2. Hope (Tomlinson), I think they list her at 5-6, that’s pretty generous, that’s if she’s wearing high heels. Just getting into the lane and knowing there is two six-footers, one is 6-1, is really difficult.”

Payne was later named the Patricia L. Roy Mental Attitude Award winner, and rightfully so after not only leading NorthWood with 19 points, 10 rebounds and four steals, but was 9-10 from the free throw line and was a constant on and off the court all season.

“It was really frustrating, and I don’t know if you could tell, but I was more annoyed at myself for not finishing rather than not getting the calls,” Payne said. The senior was just 5-16 from the floor in the game. “Coach (Corey) Duncan, was just telling me get out of my own head and just finish and my shots would end up falling. And they did in the second half.”

Miller did what Miller has done all season, score big buckets in big moments, opening the fourth with a hoop and finishing the night with seven points, seven rebounds, two assists and two steals. Kate Rulli pulled down 10 rebounds, and while it wasn’t a fantasy stat feast, Bre Wise made some key plays in recording two steals, two assists, a rebound, a free throw, and deflected several other Salem passes.

Karlie Fielstra hit a huge three for NorthWood and did a lot of the little things to ensure she didn’t end her career with a loss.

Karlie Fielstra hit a three, had two assists, added a block and a rebound and Alea Minnich had a bucket and three rebounds.

“When I was younger, I would always think it’s so sad that everyone’s last game pretty much has to be a loss,” Fielstra said. “I told the team that, well, everybody except for one team. I told them that I wanted to be the one team that didn’t have to have their last game end on a loss.”

The Panthers (28-3) finish the championship run allowing just 32.6 points per game in its seven tournament contests, and allowed the fewest points in a Class 3-A championship game. The 66 total points scored in the final set an IHSAA championship record for fewest in a title game. NorthWood closed its season allowing 30 points to a one-loss Knox team, holding No. 2 Benton Central 42 points below its season average and shutting down Salem to nearly half its season average on the biggest stage in Indiana.

Salem (25-4) had Abigail Ratts lead the team with 10 points and four rebounds and Hope Tomlinson hit a pair of threes for her six points.

“We held them to 19 points basically from the four-minute mark of the first quarter through the last minute of the game,” Yoder said. “I think that tells the tale right there of this basketball team and who we are.”

NorthWood, the Class 3-A girls basketball state champions.