Basketball Results: Dec. 10
Westview Boys 67, NorthWood 56
Drew Litwiller had 20 points and Westview nailed all 12 of its free throws in the fourth quarter to put away NorthWood at The Pit.
Litwiller had 10 points at the half, eight as part of a 22-point Westview second quarter. Litwiller and Lyndon Miller both had eight points in the fourth to keep the Warriors ahead for good.
Cade Brenner had a big night for the Panthers, scoring 25 points. The guard did all he could to keep NorthWood (2-1) in it in the fourth, scoring 15 of his points in the final eight minutes. Ben Vincent added 10 points and Cooper Wiens had seven points in the loss.
Westview won the JV game 57-50. Stats were not provided.
Bethany Christian Boys 54, Lakeland Christian 43
Solid outside shooting helped Bethany get past its Hoosier Plains Conference rivals Thursday night in Winona Lake.
The Bruins hit five three-point shots in the first half, and then added three more in the second half to pull away from the hosts. Tyson Chupp hit three of them and finished with 13 points, and Beck Willems added two from deep and led the Bruins with 15 points. Ethan Boyer added 11 points.
Landon Gause had a big first half for the Cougars (1-2), scoring 16 points in the first two quarters on the strength of four three-pointers. Gause would cool off and wind up with 22 points. Hunter Rice and Cam Shepherd each finished with eight points.
“We got ourselves into a first half hole again against Bethany that we just couldn’t dig out of,” said LCA head coach Jake Ritchie. “I am encouraged by the grit and fight our guys have shown this week in battling back into these games! After being down double digits at one point we fought back and tied the game inside three minutes but ran out of gas. If we can continue to gel together as a team and just fix a few mental lapses, I like the potential for this team!”
Indiana Tech Women 81, Grace 54
No. 22 Indiana Tech took advantage of Grace’s inability to guard the interior Thursday night at the MOCC.
The 9-0 Warriors outscored Grace 38-22 in the paint, but also hit 10 three-pointers to counteract a constant offensive attack.
Grace had the game within five points in the second quarter, but the Warriors hit 6-7 field goals to start the quarter to build a 43-25 advantage.
“When it comes down to it, that easily is the best basketball team we’ve played this year,” said Grace College head coach Dan Davis. “Hand’s down the best overall team we’ve seen. And it’s not that our girls didn’t know what to do, we knew exactly who was going to get the ball for them. It just became a matter of coming together. Our rotations were a step slow, and it’ll take a little time.
“I know that. We competed in the first quarter, just didn’t find our assignments in the second and started missing shots. Can’t do that against a team like Tech.”
The Lancers (3-4) would win the third quarter, 15-13, and then used a couple threes from Kamryn Hostetler and Kyannah Stull and another make from Hostetler to get within 12 at 60-48.
But as had happened for much of the night, when Grace threatened, Tech would respond. Kyra Whitaker would come back down and drill a three, and later hit another three and was fouled, her third bomb of the fourth quarter and fifth of the game, to put the Warriors up 25.
Whitaker had 15 points, but the night belonged to Alexis Hill, who quietly but aggressively went 13-16 from the floor and tallied 35 points and 12 rebounds.
Erika Foy also quietly compiled a triple double with 10 points, 13 assists and 10 rebounds.
Stull was the lone Lancer to break double figures with 14 points. Hostetler, Kenzie McMahon and Kaylee Patton all had eight points. And on a night when Maddie Ryman followed up a career-high 27 points on Monday with a donut on Thursday, Kiara Gill came off the bench to five points and three rebounds, along with a lot of intangibles Davis pointed out is key going forward.
“When you lose by 27 points, you wouldn’t think there would be a lot of positives, but I saw a lot tonight,” Davis said. “Kenzie McMahon had eight points and eight rebounds, showed some good things. Kaylee Patton hit a couple big shots. KG gave us some really good minutes. Those kids have had some struggles a little bit this year. As a coach, you want to see that. You want to see them grow in tough spots like tonight.
“We feel like the strength of this team is going to be our bench, and if we can get it there when we jump into conference season, that will put us in better positions to win some games. As long as the effort is there, we can correct the technical stuff. It’s just the belief needs to be there.”