Northeast Nodaway's boys could not contain Jason DeMott or the rest of the North Nodaway boys as they dropped their Senior Night contest 50-48 last Tuesday. "Things didn't work the way we wanted them to, and we didn't come in with the right mindset," was all Coach Charley Burch would say about the game.
The defensive woes that plagued the Bluejay boys in their loss to CFX surfaced again. They knew coming into the game that Jason DeMott would be the main scoring threat for the Mustangs. Yet time and time again, they would leave him unguarded, letting him score 29 points on the night. And on the other end of the floor, despite facing one of the smallest teams in the area, Northeast would get away from their game plan of getting the ball inside to one of their three big men and settle for outside jump shots, frequently resulting in fast break layups on the other end of the floor.
The trouble started right off the bat when DeMott scored off a steal and then hit back to back NBA 3-pointers right off the bat as nobody came out and guarded him. Bryce Farnan finally answered with a putback, but then DeMott connected again, this time from the left wing at the 4:29 mark. At that point, it was DeMott 11, Northeast Nodaway 2.
The Mustangs maintained their 7-9 point lead until late, when Northeast finally scored nine points in a 1:14 span to tie it up. Colby Wiederholt started it off with a fast break, followed by a kickout from Tyler Davis to Aaron Patton at the top of the key for a 3-pointer. Following a James Burns block, Colby Wiederholt got a putback and then went coast to coast and drew a foul, connecting on both free throws to tie it at 15 with 14.1 seconds left. But then, another defensive lapse followed as nobody matched up on DeMott, who got an uncontested layup at the buzzer to put North Nodaway up 17-15.
The game settled into a contest that was much lower-scoring than one might expect from two high-octane teams. The only two baskets either team managed in the first four minutes of the second quarter were a drive from DeMott that gave him 17 of North Nodaway's 19 points at that point and a lob from Tyler Davis to Bryce Farnan inside that made it 19-17. Free throws from Jesse Birkenholtz were answered by two from Colby Wiederholt and a 3-point play from James Burns on a fast break that gave Northeast its first lead at 22-21. But late free throws from Trey Adamson and DeMott gave the Mustangs a 27-24 halftime lead.
Northeast finally came out like they were going to follow their game plan of getting the ball inside to their three big men. Tyler Davis opened the scoring, followed by a driving layup from Colby Wiederholt. Davis then lobbed into Bryce Farnan to give Northeast its biggest lead of the game at 30-27. But then Adamson drove into the paint for North Nodaway and DeMott scored off a fast break and a steal as Northeast returned to settling for jump shots instead of working the ball inside. The game was tied at 33, 35, and 38 before a drive from Curtis Jones and a free throw from DeMott put the Mustangs up 41-38 after three quarters of play.
Once again, Northeast started off the quarter strongly, only to get sidetracked by a defensive lapse. Bobby Welch lobbed the ball inside to Bryce Farnan and then a drive from Colby Wiederholt resulted in two free throws that put Northeast up 42-41 at the 6:58 mark. But then nobody guarded DeMott from outside again, and his 3-pointer put North Nodaway back in front 44-43. Trey Adamson added a putback to make it 46-42. Northeast came back to tie as Bobby Welch hit a pair of free throws and Colby Wiederholt scored off a fast break. But another defensive lapse followed, this time of the bizarre variety, followed as Tyler Davis somehow got matched up on DeMott. DeMott took full advantage, going to the basket for two free throws with 2:15 lead to make it 48-46.
Davis cut inside to tie it at 48 with 2:01 left and then North Nodaway threw the ball away to give Northeast a chance to take the lead. Northeast ran over a minute off the clock and then Tyler Davis got a good look from the right baseline, but his shot went in and out and North Nodaway had a chance to run out the clock and take the last shot. Jason DeMott got tied up with 8.1 seconds left, but the possession arrow pointed to North Nodaway and they were able to keep the ball. Northeast tried to trap DeMott just inside the halfcourt line to take the ball out of his hands and make someone else try to win it, but Chad Messner fouled DeMott with 6.6 seconds left and DeMott made both free throws to put North Nodaway up 50-48.
Northeast had to go the full length of the court to try for the tie or win with two timeouts left, and they inbounded it first to the halfcourt line and then to the frontcourt. At that point, there were 2.8 seconds left. Tyler Davis caught the ensuing inbounds pass about 25 feet away from the basket and had a good look, but his shot was well short of the basket.
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