Worth County's boys won 52-40 over an explosive North Nodaway squad as they claimed the consolation prize of the Albany Tournament. The Tigers were able to contain one of the quickest guards in the area in Jason DeMott and were able to use their new-found size to get the better of the matchup between the two teams. The question for the game was whether or not Worth County could keep up with a five-guard lineup from North Nodaway which created all sorts of matchup problems for Princeton, which lost to the explosive Mustang squad by 20 points. The answer for this game was, yes -- they could. And they did despite being set back by a whole host of questionable calls by the officials.
Zach Harmening, who had gotten eight steals against Polo, was the victim of referees' whistles as they called him for a blocking foul even though he was perfectly set to take a charge. They then sent him to the bench with two fouls four minutes into the game with a ticky-tack foul when he had all ball on a rebounding situation. Despite this, the Tigers built a 6-0 lead as Alex Harmening got behind the Mustang defense, Cole Buffington got loose underneath, and Eli Mullock got a putback.
North Nodaway was playing a 2-3 zone and daring Worth County to take the quick 3-pointer so that they could run the other way with it after getting the long rebound. The Mustangs would throw up a lot of quick three-pointers themselves as all five of their starting guards and Jesse Birkenholtz off the bench were gunslinging and then crashing the boards hard. Consequently, as Coach Chris Healy told his players, the Mustangs were getting a lot of second-chance points that kept them in the game. Worth County countered with a 1-3 zone with one player guarding DeMott man to man. The tactic worked despite plenty of interference from the officials, who would call ticky-tack fouls if Tiger players barely touched DeMott. On the other hand, Alex Harmening was scratched just below the eye and drew a cut which forced him to the bench, and no foul was called.
Dylan Kinsella opened the second quarter by picking up the first four of his 14 points by grabbing a pair of putbacks to put the Tigers up 12-8. But the sloppy play returned for the Tigers, who were not swinging the ball around, but who were caught up in North Nodaway's game plan of gunslinging shots. And the second chance points continued to mount for North Nodaway as Jesse Birkenholz grabbed an offensive carom and hit two free throws to make it 13-12. That prompted a time-out from Coach Healy, who told his players that they needed to pick things up. They responded and got much better ball movement as they were able to take control of the game. Zach Harmening jumped a pass for a steal to jumpstart the Tiger run; Dylan Kinsella had a pair of inside shots over the smaller Mustang players, and Jordan Harding got a putback as Worth County went back ahead 20-13.
Todd Harding continued the run with a steal and then Dylan Kinsella scored his tenth point of the quarter with an inside shot to make it 24-13. Aided by the officials, who failed to call an obvious backcourt violation on the Mustangs on the play, Trey Adamson got a putback for North Nodaway to stop the run. But Worth County led 27-17 at the break.
Aaron Wallace opened the third quarter with a 3-pointer for North Nodaway to make it 27-20, but J.J. Mullock scored from inside and then followed with a fast break. Alex Harmening jumped a pass and converted a 3-point play and then picked up an errant carom on the next play, Zach Harmening jumped into a Mustang defender to draw a foul and hit both free throws to put the Tigers up 38-20; they had scored 11 points in just under two minutes during their run. The teams then traded buckets during the rest of the period until Cole Buffington scored from inside with 14 seconds left to give the Tigers their biggest lead of the night at 44-24.
Worth County and North Nodaway traded buckets for the rest of the evening before the Mustangs made a meaningless 7-0 run in the last two minutes to make the score closer. Cole Buffington took advantage of a much smaller defender for a bucket in the period; Todd Harding and Zach Harmening added a pair of free throws each, while Eli Mullock scored off a backdoor layup to account for the scoring for Worth County in the period.
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