The bubble finally burst for Northeast Nodaway's girls as they gave up a 30-0 run to South Harrison late in the second quarter and early in the third and fell to them 67-39 in the championship game of the South Harrison Tournament Saturday. The Bluejays were beaten by a combination of foul trouble as well as a team that was taller and quicker than any team they had faced so far. The Bulldogs showed little layoff from the graduation of 6'1" 3-point shooter and point guard Kelsey Butler; they featured 6'2" mobile athletic post player Mysti Williams, a 6-foot guard who can beat people off the dribble or from outside in Whitney Bennett, another 5'10 post player in Amanda Wendt, and a deadly shooter in Tiara Pettijohn. The scary thing about it for future South Harrison opponents is that they didn't even play 6-footer Kelly Kern, a deadly clutch player, who was out with an injury.
Northeast hung with South Harrison for the first one and a half quarters. They got down early as Williams stepped outside and hit a 3-pointer to ignite South Harrison; Jessica Prewitt would then get behind the Northeast defense and give them a 5-2 lead. But the Bluejays settled down and solved the diamond press that South Harrison threw at them. In the meantime, Williams picked up two quick fouls and sat on the bench for an extended period of time. Jacqueline Schulte's 3-pointer from the baseline tied it; Kristin Sherry followed with a baseline jumper and Schulte got the ball into Blair Schmitz to put Northeast up 9-5 with 5:53 left. But then Pettijohn, who was constantly pushing the ball up the floor all night, got behind the Bluejay press twice for layups and Whitney Bennett beat a Northeast defender off the drive for the first of many times to give South Harrison an 11-9 lead.
Jacqueline Schulte kicked a pass out to Kristin Sherry on the baseline, but would then pick up her second foul and sit on the bench for the rest of the period. Michelle Schulte followed her own miss after a drive against the much taller South Harrison players and Northeast was up 13-11. But Bennett countered by hitting some free throws late in the period to put South Harrison up 14-13 after one quarter. Bennett continued driving at will against Northeast, putting them up 18-13; Schulte picked up her third foul right off the bat in the second period and sat on the bench for the rest of the half.
It looked like Northeast would right the ship as Hallie Oelze drove the left wing for a layup at the 5:27 mark to break the run. South Harrison put Williams back in at that point; initially, the move had no effect. Kristin Sherry connected from the right wing and then stole the ensuing inbounds pass and fed Emily Bryant for a layup. Blair Schmitz kicked the ball out to Michelle Schulte on the left wing for a 3-pointer to put Northeast up 22-19 at the 2:47 mark.
But then Pettijohn ignited South Harrison by scoring eight points in a little over a minute, including back to back 3-pointers to start the Bulldog's 30-0 run. With Northeast still up 22-21, Hallie Oelze picked up her third foul, opening up the floodgates for South Harrison, who turned the next eight minutes of the game into a layup drill featuring Williams, who was rebounding on the offensive end at will for South Harrison. Northeast put Jacqueline Schulte and Hallie Oelze back in at the start of the third, but even that did not stop the layup drill as they could not buy a defensive board against the mobile, athletic Williams or contain Whitney Bennett in the open court.
Michelle Schulte finally broke the run by scoring off a Blair Schmitz steal; by then, it was 49-24. Blair Schmitz followed with a 3-pointer and Jacqueline Schulte hit two of her own sandwiched around a Williams free throw, and it looked like the CFX game from last year would repeat itself as Northeast nearly erased a 26-point deficit and whittled it down to five. Jacqueline then answered an off-balance shot by Williams with a pair of free throws, and it was 52-35 at the 5:44 mark, still plenty of time for a team like Northeast. But Northeast missed several shots that would have cut it to 15 or 14, and the layup drill resumed, with Northeast's attempts to come back futilely clanking off the rim and South Harrison's Whitney Bennett pushing the ball down the floor to create easy baskets during an 11-0 run that put the game out of reach at 63-35 at the 2:27 mark. Kristin Sherry led Jessica Redden with a perfect bounce pass for a layup and Taylor Dougan connected from the right side in garbage time for Northeast.
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