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NAPPANEE - Talk to the NorthWood girls basketball team about North Side gym in Elkhart and you can almost see that gleam in their eyes.
They'll say phrases like "home away from home" and "second home court." The Panthers were not just used to playing in that gym in the postseason, they enjoyed doing it. No longer does NorthWood play any postseason games there or in Fort Wayne, where the semistate was traditionally held before class basketball changed all that.
Now NorthWood plays sectional and semistate action at conference schools Wawasee and Warsaw. Sandwich that around regional action at home in Nappanee, and the Panthers still play at some familiar places.
"It will be just like any other floor," senior forward Heidi Collins said of Warsaw's Tiger Den. "Going over to Elkhart to North Side gym, that was our home away from home because we've been there so many times. We've played at Warsaw so we're familiar with the court and the surroundings."
That familiarity may come in handy since none of the other three semistate teams know much about Warsaw's gym. All will come a greater distance than NorthWood, and all will need to get used to the atmosphere.
But the change in surroundings doesn't change what the Panthers will be here to do. Last year was NorthWood's first semistate championship. They look like favorites to do it again. But there will be some spots that other teams may try to focus on to exploit their strengths.
One of those spots is the inside game. Carroll has the physical 5-foot-11 Sally Hilger and the 5-10 Andrea Krouse. Lebanon has Dana Western, a 5-11 center who is scoring 16.2 points and grabbing nine rebounds a game. West Lafayette has the 6-4 Lello Gebisa and the 6-1 Ebba Gebisa inside.
Left to battle those players will be NorthWood's 5-11 senior center Jamie Gill. She is scoring 6.4 points and grabbing 3.2 rebounds per game, much smaller numbers than many of the big people inside for the other three teams. But Gill will be ready.
"Usually I'm not physical," Gill said. "But if I have to I can be. It's not like I'm not physical at all, but I don't go in there bumping and shoving."
And of course, the Panthers will do what they always do - push the ball up the floor. Even though NorthWood will have to win two games on Saturday to get to the state finals, coach Steve Neff isn't about to slow his team down and conserve energy. They've prepared for the semistate.
"In our own tournament, we played two games in one day and over in the Penn Classic right at the end of the year, we played two games in one day. That's why we do it. We know what it's like, so if we're fortunate enough to (play two games), we should have some idea what's going on. We feel we've got some good athletes in the open floor, so we're going to try to get the ball up and down the floor and make it a full-court game."
If the Panthers can do that, they'll neutralize those inside presences to an extent and raise their chances for victory.
And if that's the case, then NorthWood will have gone from winning two games and the sectional at the Hardwood Teepee to winning one game and the regional at the Panther Pit to winning two more and a semistate title at the Tiger Den. Maybe that can take some of the sting away from not getting to play in the Panthers' home away from home, North Side Gym.
