The Schulte family has come full circle as all three siblings have now hit game winning shots. Jacqueline made four throughout her career as a Bluejay, impressive when many college players are fortunate to hit one throughout high school and college. Steve got a last-second putback in King City playing junior high ball. It was a long time coming and she should have had one last year, but it finally came as Michelle Schulte hit a game winning free throw in sudden death overtime to beat former Northeast Nodaway coach Ryan Davis’ Lexington squad 19-18 in action at Northwest’s basketball game. This was also the first win by Coach Vance Proffit against Ryan Davis as they coached against each other while Vance was coaching North Nodaway and Ryan was coaching the Bluejays.
It was the lone win for the Bluejays as they were routinely pitted against Class 3 competition. But new coach Vance Profitt had nothing bad to say afterwards. "I’m very proud of the effort you gave," he said to his troops after the final whistle had sounded. "We’ve got to keep working at it and we can’t stop now. Every single one of you played well these past two days."
Neither team had won a game coming into Thursday morning’s encounter; both teams were very young and were just learning the ropes. Lexington put on the press early, but Northeast showed they were up to handling it as they got all the calls and got on the line at will in the early going. Michelle Schulte had three free throws, getting to the rim despite Coach Davis’ efforts to keep the ball out of her hands; Taryn Farnan, drawing contact at will, added another; Kristan Judd scored from inside while Rachel Runde beat the press for a layup to make it 8-0 late in the first half.
But then Lexington, who is very much a jump shooting team, finally warmed up and started hitting and got back into the game, scoring the next nine points to go up 9-8 early in the second half. But with Schulte on the bench to start the second half, Rachel Runde got behind the press as Kristan Judd pushed it up the floor. Judd played the game of her life in the second half as she carried Northeast throughout and kept them in the game, showing some newfound ballhandling skills to go with her post play. Kerrigan Adwell showed some good hands and one of the freshmen, Casey Wiederholt, started showing some promise on defense. Runde beat the press again, but then Lexington took advantage of some missed free throws to fight back and tie it at 12.
Taryn Farnan got behind the defense for a layup, drawing one of Ryan Davis’ quips, calling her a cherrypicker (all in good fun); however, Lexington came right back to go up 16-14 late. But Judd would not let Northeast lose as she got behind the press to tie again. Lexington scored again from outside, but Judd caught the ball in the high post and drove down the right side of the lane to tie it up again. But tragedy struck in one way and nearly two. Both sides had chances to win in the final minute and then Judd fell and hurt her knee trying to guard against a drive down the right side in the last five seconds of regulation. She was out for the rest of the day. Lexington got a good look at a 5-footer at the buzzer, but it bounced three times off the rim before falling off despite all of Ryan Davis’ body english to try to get it to go in.
Lexington controlled the opening tip in sudden death, but Michelle defended against a drive perfectly and forced a miss and Northeast had a chance to win. Despite all of Ryan Davis’ efforts to shut down Michelle, she was wide open for a drive down the left wing and she drew contact, got to the line, and hit the game winning free throw for the win.
The Bluejays missed Kristan Judd and her strong floor play for the rest of the afternoon, but they kept going hard even as they were playing against tougher opposition. Judd continued to make herself useful to the team as she showed herself to be coaching material as she called the team in for a huddle before their final game as Vance Profitt was getting a scheduling snafu straightened out and drawing up a play for a freshman on the coach’s chalkboard.
Taryn Farnan hit her head on the floor in the second game that afternoon going after a loose ball, a loss to Maryville, but she came back for the third game that day. Michelle Schulte did all she could to help her team against Maryville, getting eight points, but the Bluejays lost 35-15. Sarah Bliley showed some spark on offense, getting behind the Maryville defense twice for layups.
In their final effort against Liberty’s JV, they fell behind 20-12 in the second half before a late rally pulled them to within 20-16 as they fought hard until the very end. Michelle Schulte and Taryn Farnan shared scoring honors with six points as Taryn came back with a vengeance and showcased her trademark fierce play on the floor. Michelle knocked down a pair of 3-pointers to keep her team in the game. Kristen Wiederholt made a nice turnaround move and banked it home in the post and Claudia Wiederholt showed some strong hands on defense and added a good entry to Taryn in the post.
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