Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
SYRACUSE - NorthWood girls basketball coach Steve Neff, he with the 420-102 record, said he was a little worried during his fourth period class Tuesday.
Carol Duncan, a student in that class and his 6-foot-2 junior center, was sick and went to the nurse's office.
Recently, Kasey Chamberlin turned an ankle in practice. She couldn't walk the next morning.
Those in attendance at Tuesday night's NorthWood game with Angola in the first round of the Wawasee 3A Sectional wouldn't have known the duo was playing ill or injured.
In a 60-42 NorthWood win, Chamberlin scored a game-high 20 points, while Duncan added 19 points and pulled down 14 rebounds.
"She kept out of foul trouble and played with two for a long time," Neff said of Duncan. "Fourth hour she had to go to the nurse. I didn't know how she was gonna do, and then Kasey was hurt."
The 18-point win ups NorthWood's record to 18-3, while Angola, a 57-47 winner over the Panthers earlier in the year, finishes the season 16-4.
NorthWood will play 8-14 West Noble Friday at 6 p.m. West Noble topped 10-10 Lakeland 52-33 in Tuesday's first game. Wawasee, 21-0 and ranked second in the state, will play 9-11 Northridge in Friday's second game. The winners will play in Saturday's 7:30 p.m. championship game.
Neff said playing and beating a team was easier the second time around. In the Panthers' 10-point loss to the Hornets earlier in the year, Duncan was hampered by foul trouble and sat a considerable amount of time on the bench. Last night the 6-2 junior was on the floor, and when she was on the floor she was dominant.
Duncan, a three-year starter, scored the first six points of the game. Her ninth point came on a three-point play at the 3:31 mark of the opening quarter, giving the Panthers an 11-4 lead.
"We changed a few things offensively," Neff said of the adjustments he made from NorthWood's last meeting with Angola. "We kept Kasey and Carol on the floor this time, we didn't do that last time."
NorthWood led 15-6 after one, and then 17-6 when 5-8 senior Natalie Nunemaker made good on two free throw attempts 20 seconds into the second stanza.
Down but not out, the Hornets made a run of their own and cut the lead to two, 19-17, when 6-1 senior Kristi Miller hit a basket. But then Chamberlin took over, hitting a pair of three-pointers, the latter of the two giving NorthWood a 25-19 lead with 1:16 remaining in the first half.
Sophomore Lauren Grant made good on two free throw attempts with eight seconds left in the second stanza to cut NorthWood's halftime lead to four, 25-21.
Six-foot junior Leah Seevers led Angola in the scoring column with 10 points, while sophomore Dana Dunham and senior Jillian Gainey chipped in with seven points each.
"Number 20 (Dunham) is as good a shooter as anybody," Neff said. "She's as good a H-O-R-S-E player as (Wawasee's Shanna) Zolman, I'm not lying. We put Cort Sandy in her face, and I know she didn't hit very many threes."
Dunham finished the game 1 of 5 from three-point land. The Hornets as a team were a dismal 2 of 11 from the arc.
Angola kept it close for a brief moment in third, with a Dunham basket at the 6:03 mark cutting the deficit to 27-23. Duncan and Chamberlin then hit field goals, followed by a three-pointer from 5-9 sophomore Kelsey Newcomer, that gave the Panthers a 34-26 lead with 3:26 left in the third.
NorthWood led 40-30 after three quarters, and then outscored the Hornets 20-12 in the final frame.
After not handling the ball well in their first meeting with Angola, the Panthers turned the ball over just eight times in last night's contest. The Hornets, on the other hand, coughed up the ball 17 times.
"Anytime you have under 15 turnovers is good," Neff said. "To have under 10 against a team with pressure like Angola is great. That's one of the things we didn't do last time, handle the ball."
Neff said he put grades on the blackboard at halftime, only giving his team one "A," that coming for attitude. The rest he said were B-pluses and B-minuses. In the second half he said his team got all A's.
No. 5 NORTHWOOD 60
ANGOLA 42
Angola (16-4) 6 15 9 12 - 40
NorthWood (18-3) 15 10 15 20 - 60
Angola FG FT R S Pts.
Seevers (F) 3-8 4-4 6 0 10
Dunham (G) 2-6 2-2 1 1 7
Gainey (F) 3-7 0-0 5 0 7
Fultz (G) 2-4 0-0 1 1 4
Werner (C) 1-4 0-0 4 0 2
Lautsenheiser 1-1 0-0 0 0 2
McClanahan 0-1 0-0 0 0 0
Grant 0-3 2-2 2 2 2
Miller 2-3 2-2 6 0 6
Sanborn 0-0 0-0 2 0 0
Shoup 1-1 0-0 0 0 2
Totals 15-38 10-10 27 3 42
NorthWood FG FT R S Pts.
Ks. Chamberlin (F) 7-15 4-5 1 4 20
Duncan (C) 9-13 1-1 14 2 19
Sandy (G) 2-4 2-2 1 3 6
Newcomer (F) 2-6 0-0 0 0 6
Kt. Chamberlin (G) 2-9 1-4 6 2 5
Howard 0-0 0-0 0 1 0
Bowers 0-1 0-0 0 0 0
Nunemaker 1-4 2-2 3 1 4
Totals 23-52 10-14 25 13 60
Three-point goals - Angola 2-11 (Dunham 1-5, Gainey 1-3, Grant 0-2, McClanahan 0-1), NorthWood 4-9 (Newcomer 2-5, Ks. Chamberlin 2-2, Sandy 0-1, Kt. Chamberlin 0-1). Turnovers - Angola 17, NorthWood 8. Fouls - Angola 12, NorthWood 11. Fouled out - none.
Other first-round game:
West Noble 52, Lakeland 33
Lakeland (10-10) 6 10 11 6 - 33
West Noble (8-14) 6 6 16 24 - 52
Lakeland - Erin Neff 2 0-0 4, Tiffany Hiser 0 0-0 0, Crystal Yoder 6 5-6 17, Julie Baird 0 0-0 0, Kristen Merrifield 0 1-2 1, Jennifer Baird 0 2-2 2, Kelly Mynhier 1 0-0 2, Amber Farber 1 0-4 2, Brittany Blaize 0 0-0 0, Kim Reade 1 0-0 2, Kassey LeCount 0 0-0 0, Jennifer Calhoun 1 0-0 3. Totasl 12 8-14 33.
West Noble - Jessica Ramey 8 8-8 25, Allison Kavanaugh 2 0-0 4, Christina Grimm 0 0-0 0, Kendra Vance 0 0-0 0, Dorothy Wysong 0 0-0 0, Mandy Gangwer 4 1-2 9, Melissa Howard 2 2-2 6, Betsy Parkinson 2 0-0 4, Abby McFarren 2 0-0 4. Totals 20 11-12 52.
Three-point goals - Lakeland 1 (Calhoun), West Noble 1 (Ramey).
Wawasee 3A Sectional
Tuesday games
West Noble 53, Lakeland 33
No. 5 NorthWood 60, Angola 42
Friday games
6 p.m. -ÊNo. 5 NorthWood (18-3) vs. West Noble (8-14)
7:30 p.m. -ÊNo. 2 Wawasee (21-0) vs. Northridge (9-11)
Saturday
7:30 p.m. - championship
