Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
PERU - NorthWood just seems to have Andrean's number.
This school year alone the Panthers beat Andrean in the volleyball semistate. The Panthers beat Andrean in the football semistate. Saturday in the Peru girls basketball semistate the Panthers beat - you guessed it - Andrean 59-41 in the second semifinal game to advance to the championship game. Westfield (23-2) beat Fort Wayne Elmhurst (16-9) 66-50 in the opening game to set up the evening matchup.
The win improved NorthWood's record to 22-3. The 59ers finished their season with a 19-6 record. NorthWood's Natalie Will led all scorers with 20 points. Amy Zercher and Carol Duncan added 15 and nine points respectively in the Panthers' eighth consecutive win. Andrean was led by Meghann Sullivan and Jamie Gutowski with 15 and 11 points respectively.
"They are a very physical team," said NorthWood coach Steve Neff. "On the tapes they played man to man defense, that was just the opposite today. Every time we had a cutter go through the middle they got bumped off line. We played great defense and held them to 41. I've lost too many semistate afternoon games not to be happy."
This was NorthWood's sixth consecutive trip to the semistate and ninth overall. The Panthers hadn't won a semistate crown since the 1996-97 season.
NorthWood started things with two baskets by Will to take an early 4-0 advantage and eventually pushed the lead to 10-4. Andrean's Kara Austgen tossed in a three-pointer and Tracy Simon added a two-point field goal to cut NorthWood's lead to 13-9 at the end of the first quarter.
Andrean outscored the Panthers 13-11 in the second stanza and only trailed by two at halftime, 24-22.
With 2:50 remaining in the third quarter Sullivan made good on a field goal attempt to cut the deficit to 30-29 but NorthWood headed into the final frame on the strength of a 10-3 run that pushed their lead to 40-32.
"At halftime we said we wanted that run," said Neff. "If we had it we'd win the game."
The Panthers put the game out of reach for good in the fourth quarter by connecting on six of eight free throw attempts and the same number from the field as they outscored Andrean 19-9 to account for the 18-point win.
For the game NorthWood was 20 of 38 (52.6 percent) from the floor and 18 of 26 (69.2 percent) from the charity stripe. The 59ers, on the other hand, made good on just 16 of 52 (30.8 percent) attempts from the floor and 5 of 9 from the free-throw line.
NORTHWOOD 59 ANDREAN 41
NorthWood 13 11 16 19 - 59
Andrean 9 13 10 9 -Ê41
NorthWood FG FT S R Pts.
Morris 0-0 2-2 0 0 2
Stichter 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Sandy 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Ks. Chamberlain (G) 3-8 1-2 2 2 7
Zercher (F) 4-9 6-8 2 7 15
Callander (G) 1-3 2-2 1 1 4
Zell 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Will (G) 9-14 2-4 0 9 20
Haney 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Newcomer 0-0 1-2 0 3 1
Kt. Chamberlain 0-0 1-2 0 1 1
Duncan (C) 3-4 3-4 2 2 9
Totals 20-38 18-26 7 28 59
Andrean FG FT S R Pts.
Gutowski (G) 4-11 2-2 0 3 10
Rogers (G) 0-5 1-2 0 2 1
K. Austgen (G) 2-8 0-0 2 0 6
Sullivan (F) 6-15 3-5 1 6 15
Muszik 0-0 0-0 0 1 0
Modrowski 1-1 0-0 0 1 3
Simon (F) 3-7 0-0 2 7 6
Goldman 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Alvarado 0-3 0-0 0 1 0
Suheski 0-0 0-0 0 1 0
Furman 0-2 0-0 1 1 0
M. Austgen 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Totals 16-52 5-9 6 29 41
Three-pointers - NorthWood 1 (Zercher), Andrean 3 (K. Austgen 2, Madrowski). Turnovers - NorthWood 11, Andrean 16. Fouls - NorthWood 11, Andrean 18. Fouled out - Duncan, Madrowski.
