North Andrew Routs Reeling NEN Boys

The Northeast Nodaway boys hit rock bottom when North Andrew routed them 58-26 in Friday night action before the King City tournament. The Bluejays had lost six out of its last seven games; however, all of their losses had at least been halfway competitive. But the North Andrew game was completely noncompetitive after the first quarter as Northeast could not maintain a torrid start and played its worst game of the year in losing to the Cardinals.

It was a typical example of Northeast's inconsistency this year that they scored 10 points in the first four minutes and scored only 16 points for the rest of the game. Colby Wiederholt scored six points during that span on an inside shot, a pair of free throws off a fast break, and a tough shot over a host of defenders. Tyler Davis added a couple of putbacks, and Northeast was keeping up with a fast-paced North Andrew squad, leading them 10-8 at the 4:27 mark.

But then Northeast could no longer keep up the pace and North Andrew used an 11-0 run to go ahead for good at 19-10, mostly on an array of fast breaks, free throws, putbacks, and easy buckets against the Bluejays, who were much slower. A typical example of Northeast's soft defense came at the end of the first quarter. Tyler Davis hit a 3-pointer with 10 seconds left in the period to cut it to six, only to have the Cardinals push it right back down the court and hit a layup with five seconds left to counter.

It was one of those "here we go again" moments as Coach Charlie Burch began shuttling people in and out, trying to find five people who could put it all together on the court. Josh Wiederholt, Clayton Judd, and Alec Scroggie all got extended playing time as Northeast went down the bench trying to find someone who could stop the fast-paced Cardinals from running up and down the court.

Davis tried to shoot Northeast back into the game, hitting an NBA 3-pointer to make it 25-16 with 5:59 left, but North Andrew answered with a pair of backdoor layups, a steal, and another layup inside to make it 32-16. Northeast only managed one other bucket, a 3-pointer from Josh Wideman with 1:19 from the left baseline, as the Bluejays trailed 40-20 at the break.

Things went from bad to worse in the third quarter. Colby Wiederholt scored off a backdoor layup right off the bat against the Cardinals; however, that was the last scoring Northeast would do until the closing seconds of the period. In between, there were defensive lapses, unforced turnovers, and a lot of dribbling without a purpose as North Andrew raised its lead to 50-22 before Brad Stoll came off the bench to score off a putback with 40 seconds left. The fourth quarter was more of the same as the only points from Northeast were from a driving layup from Wiederholt with 5:41 left; North Andrew cleared its bench, but their reserves continued to pull away from the Bluejays.