Northeast Nodaway's girls used a 16-point outburst from Michelle Schulte in the second quarter to put West Nodaway away and win 62-27 last Tuesday. Last year, Northeast beat West Nodaway 65-27 at the Northwest Missouri Tournament, only to have the Rockets rally late and make a game of it in their regular-season encounter later that year. It looked like the game would follow script in the first quarter as West Nodaway managed to hang around Northeast for a while. Northeast was playing solidly on the defensive end but was struggling on the offensive end, missing a ton of shots. Finally, as she has done many times in the past, Michelle Schulte turned the complexion of the game around with her outburst. "She was on fire," said Coach Ryan Davis. "She had a really good practice the day before, knocking down four 3-pointers in a 10-minute scrimmage." She did her usual lights-out job on the press as well, adding eight steals.
Northeast got a couple of quick scores early as Jacqueline Schulte converted a 3rd-chance putback and then found Emily Bryant alone in transition with a baseball pass to make it 4-2. But the Rockets hung around for the rest of the quarter as Northeast got their share of baskets close to the rim, but they did not get any of their outside stuff to fall despite plenty of open looks. For the rest of the quarter, Northeast managed a 3-point play from Jacqueline off a steal; Jessica Redden came off the bench and found Blair Schmitz open inside twice. West Nodaway countered with Kassie Jones, who banked a shot home from the wing right off the bat and then grabbed a carom and put it back in for the quarter. At the start of the second, Northeast was up 11-8 and in need of a spark. But Michelle Schulte had given a premonition of things to come as she took a charge towards the end of the first quarter.
Michelle opened the scoring in the second with a steal at the 7:52 mark. Jones countered with a fast break against Northeast's press, going all the way in from half-court, but then Rachel Runde found Michelle open for a 3-pointer from the right wing as her teammates began to sense that she had the hot hand that night. Schulte then got another steal and then Tessa Lightner picked up her third foul. West Nodaway tried to leave her in, hoping she would spark the team, but the move backfired on them. Runde then found Hallie Oelze alone on the top of the key for a 3-pointer and then Michelle Schulte stole the ensuing inbounds pass, drawing Lightner's fourth foul in the process and sending her to the bench and hitting both free throws.
West Nodaway hit a pair of free throws to stop the run, but then Emily Bryant hit a free throw after a steal and later found Michelle Schulte open for her second triple of the quarter. Jones' driving layup made it 27-14, but Michelle got a steals on consecutive plays. On her second steal she fed Blair Schmitz, who fed a cutting Jacqueline Schulte on the break to make it 31-14. Jacqueline followed with a steal of her own to make it 33-14. West Nodaway got a baseline jumper, but Michelle hit one from the top of the key and then Jacqueline got in on the act at the end. Michelle's pressure forced West Nodaway to throw the ball out of bounds with five seconds left, plenty of time for the Schulte sisters to team up; this time, Michelle found Jacqueline alone for an NBA 3-pointer from the left wing at the buzzer to put Northeast up 38-16 at the half. The long looks and slumped shoulders said it all -- the Rockets were a beaten team at that point.
The entire second half was dominated by Tessa Lightner against the world as West Nodaway quit running their normal half-court sets and Lightner kept trying futilely to take it to the basket, only to be turned away time and time again as she only managed three points in the half. In the meantime, Northeast continued to pull away as Blair Schmitz had a pair of free throws. Jacqueline and Michelle Schulte then each got steals before they were done for the night and the rest of the team continued to outplay West Nodaway. Kenzie Waldeier then found Rachel Runde open on the right baseline and then Blair Schmitz found Hallie Oelze open on the left wing for a 3-pointer to make it 49-18 at the 2:59 mark. Lightner countered with a free throw, but Hallie Oelze threw a long outlet to Rachel Runde, who got behind the defense to make it 51-19. West Nodaway closed out on a 4-0 run, but then Blair Schmitz found Jessica Redden open on the left baseline to make it 53-23 and trigger the running clock for the rest of the game.
As Rachel Runde was playing tight defense on Lightner, denying her repeated attempts to drive to the rim and kill the running clock, everyone got into the scoring column for Northeast. Schmitz found Taylor Dougan open on the left side, Kristan Judd found Jessica Redden open inside, and then Judd found Kenzie Waldeier open on the break for a 3-point play. Finally, Judd got everyone in the scoring charts with 48 seconds to spare as Taylor Dougan kicked the ball out to her on the right wing; Runde had a monster stuff on Lightner in the closing seconds on the other end for the exclamation point.
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