Northeast Nodaway boys used a 19-point third quarter to pull away from Union Star and beat them 54-40 in the first game of the year for both teams. The Bluejays drove new coach Ryan Madden crazy with some of their miscues in the first half, but got things together in the second half to take control of the game. Colby Wiederholt score 20 points for Northeast, 11 in the third quarter. Bryce Farnan added 12 and a ton of defensive boards.
Northeast had their problems in the first quarter as they were not finishing and not running their offense and Kevin Stoll picked up two quick fouls. But Bryce Farnan hit from the right wing and Colby Wiederholt got a rebound putback to make it 7-2 late as Northeast held Union Star without a field goal in the period.
The first-game sloppiness continued as nobody set up the offense, nobody was getting back on defense, and they paid for it as they fell behind 18-15 before Kevin Stoll grabbed a putback at the buzzer to cut the deficit to one point.
The Trojans scored the first basket of the second half, but from there, it was all Northeast. Kevin Stoll scored off a high-low and then Colby Wiederholt scored off a long pass from Bryce Farnan to put Northeast back in front at 21-20. Sean O'Dell tied it up with a free throw at 21, but with Bryce Farnan out, Colby Wiederholt took over for Northeast, scoring at will from the inside. Dalton Welch added a couple of buckets, included a left-handed hook shot. Welch showed that he was one of the most improved players from last year. "You're going to be my sixth man this year," Coach Ryan Madden told him after the game. "I'm going to put you in to bring energy this team. You were going after balls that nobody else was going after." Clayton Judd added a drive to the basket with a huge finishing step for a layup after nobody picked him up on defense; Colby, who had one move -- a left-handed drive -- added a high-arching 3-pointer that made it 36-25.
Union Star cut Northeast's lead to 36-29, but then Farnan came back in and got a putback to jump start another run. Kevin Stoll scored off a Colby Wiederholt steal and Aaron Patton scored from inside with 6:02 left to make it 42-29. The lead stayed at double digits for much of the fourth quarter, but then Northeast had some ill-advised possessions, throwing hail mary passes that were not there and jacking up 3-pointers. There was a two-minute scoring drought for both teams with the score stuck at 45-37, but then Nick Palmer buried a 3-pointer from the left wing with 1:52 left to make things interesting, making it 45-40. As Northeast was having trouble getting the ball up court, Union Star got a couple of chances to make it a one-possession game, but Ryan Hutchcraft missed a close shot inside and Northeast blocked another shot.
Finally, a critical mistake by Union Star allowed Northeast to escape with the win as Sean Kelley grabbed Colby Wiederholt on the jersey as he was going up for a shot in transition and was called for the intentional foul. Colby hit one out of two free throws and then hit Bryce Farnan on the ensuing possession to make it 48-40. Following a stop, Farnan threw a long outlet to Aaron Patton and the General took it in for a layup to make it 50-40. Kevin Stoll got a monster stuff on the next play and then Kelley, who was left in the game for some reason, committed another intentional foul as he grabbed Aaron Patton who was trying to dribble out some clock. Bryce Farnan added a bucket at the end for the final score.
Following his nerve-racking first game, Coach Madden said that the key word for his team was "focus." He said that the reason that his team finally pulled away was that "we focused more." He said that the challenge for his team this year was to figure out how to be focused in games and not make the kind of silly mistakes he said they were making Tuesday night.
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