Tuesday night, the Worth County Junior High girls had a shocking collapse against King City -- after entering the fourth quarter with a 30-16 lead, King City hung 21 points on Worth County and came back to win 37-31. Given a similar situation against Northeast Nodaway, the Tigers learned their lesson as they protected a similar lead against the Bluejays and won 22-11 Thursday night.
Coach Suzie Smith said that the difference between the two games was that her squad had played calmer the second time around. "We were more in control the second time, and we didn't panic when they put pressure on us." The first eight minutes of the game started off as an all-out war between the two squads as both sides were putting strong pressure on the ball and not giving up any easy looks at the baskets. The only points in the first quarter were a driving layup from Claudia Wiederholt and a drive from Kristen Andrews when she picked up a carom and went in for a layup. There was a lot of rough play on both sides as Stormy Sherer had a hard foul on Wiederholt that left her shook up and Wiederholt picked up three fouls in the first half and saw extended time on the bench after the second quarter. "We played hard, but we didn't play well enough," said Northeast coach Ryan Davis. "Worth County was the most physical team we have seen all year. We have to learn to be just as physical in order to win these kinds of games."
In the second quarter, Worth County slowly began to take control. Liz Novak knocked down a shot from the left side to make it 4-2. Taryn Farnan hit a free throw, but then Novak connected from the right side with 4:15 left, prompting Coach Davis to start keying on her. That opened everyone else as Kristen Andrews connected from the right side after a Claire Andrews kickout and then she drew Wiederholt's third foul on a strong move inside and hit one out of two to make it 9-3 at the break.
Novak got her sixth point from the baseline to start the second half. Shayna Dougan answered with a shot from the right wing with 5:07 left, but then Novak connected from the right side again with 4:38 left to make it 13-5. In the period, the Tigers were switching perfectly when denying the inbounds pass on the press, forcing Coach Ryan Davis to burn two timeouts to avoid five-seconds calls as Northeast was having trouble getting the ball in all night. Claire Andrews then hit from the right side to make it 15-5 with 2:25 left. Novak then picked up her fourth foul and Taryn Farnan scored from inside as Northeast had a glimmer of hope. But then Claire Andrews had a drive right down the lane to open the scoring in the fourth for Worth County. Holly Redden scored on a fast break with 4:09 left, but Katie Mullock hit a free throw with 3:18 left and then Claire Andrews provided the dagger following a turnover with a shot from the right wing. With Northeast trapping, trying to get the ball back, Kristen Andrews drove out of it for a layup down the middle to make it 22-9. Kristen Wiederholt scored a meaningless bucket in the closing seconds for Northeast to account for the final score.
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