NAPPANEE - Another year, another regional championship for that NorthWood Panthers girls basketball team.

Nothing new there.

For the sixth consecutive season and the 11th time in 12 years, NorthWood's girls basketball team advanced to the semistate after defeating Plymouth 42-32 Saturday.

For the Panthers, it was the first time this year that they scored less than 50 points in a game, but that was only because of Plymouth's patient offensive style. NorthWood actually shot 40 percent from the field, the highest percentage the Panthers have had in the postseason this year.

"I want to congratulate Plymouth," NorthWood head coach Steve Neff said. "They came a long way this year since the first time we played them. They had a good gameplan. They wanted to dictate the tempo of the game."

That first time that the Panthers and the Pilgrims faced off, NorthWood defeated Plymouth 58-18, but this was a vastly improved team. The only problem for the Pilgrims was that once they fell behind, they were forced to speed things up to NorthWood's tempo.

One of the key stretches began right at the end of the first period. LoriDawn Klotz scored a pair of field goals, while Plymouth got baskets from three different players as the score was tied 6-6 with one minute to play in the opening quarter.

Heidi Collins came off the bench for the Panthers to knock down a jumper with four seconds left in the period. She was also fouled and made the free throw to give NorthWood a 9-6 lead after the first eight minutes.

When the second quarter started, Klotz hit a jumper and Amy Zercher added a layup to give the Panthers a 13-6 advantage. At that point, Plymouth was forced to play catchup and it caught up with them.

Plymouth did get back-to-back baskets to get the deficit down to three points, but Klotz added her fourth basket of the first half, and Natalie Will jumped into the action with a couple of scores. Tiffany Glingle closed out the first half scoring with a three-point play in the final three seconds of the quarter as the Panthers took a 24-14 lead into the locker room.

In the third period, Plymouth opened the half with a jumper from Erin Cox, but NorthWood kept the Pilgrims from gaining any kind of offensive flow with a 13-1 rebounding advantage in the first eight minutes. NorthWood outscored Plymouth 6-2 in the quarter to hold a commanding 30-16 lead with one quarter tplay.

In the fourth quarter, the Panthers led by as many as 15 points as Plymouth was forced to push the ball up the floor. However, the Pilgrims ended the game with a 7-2 run to get the difference down to 10 points.

"We're happy we survived it," Neff said. "We've got a lot of improvement to make before semistate rolls around. When you play Plymouth, they're very patient. Each possession is a little more important."

Klotz led NorthWood with 12 points and eight rebounds. Will added 10 points and four rebounds, three assists and three steals. Collins and Glingle came off the bench to score 10 points for the Panthers and they totaled three assists and three steals.

"Plymouth played very physical and they got most of the loose balls (in the first half)," Neff said. "Heidi's physical and she came in and played well. And Tiff got some big steals for us. So the big two to come off the bench played a significant role again."

NorthWood (22-1) will meet Carroll (Allen) (13-10) in the semistate on Thursday at Warsaw. Lebanon and No. 5 West Lafayette will play at 10 a.m., and NorthWood and Carroll will play after that. The championship game will then take place at 8 p.m. [[In-content Ad]]