Northeast Nodaway's girls began the defense of their Platte Valley Conference title with a 48-30 win over Union Star in a game that was not as close as the score since Union Star scored a bunch of points on Northeast's JV late in the game. Blair Schmitz continued to make her case for being one of the top post players of the area by hanging 22 on the Trojans, posting up and driving at will as Union Star did not have any size to stop her. The post-Jacqueline Schulte era began strongly after the team got the first-game jitters out of the way and brought Coach Eric Fairchild his first win of the season. Northeast played Osborn Friday and faces a tough schedule as they play Tarkio and Stanberry next week.
"We've got good senior leadership on this team and they've done everything I've asked them to," said Coach Fairchild. "We had a tough time getting shots to drop, but we played hard and this is a very fun group to coach and be around. I can't ask for a better group of kids to work with."
Blair Schmitz opened the scoring with a layup off a Rachel Runde steal and then Blair grabbed an offensive carom and kicked it out to Kristin Sherry from outside. Kristin (12 points), celebrating her 18th birthday, followed with a steal and drive to put Northeast up 6-0 with 3:56 left.
But then Northeast went through out of their few struggles with the 1st string as they started settling for outside shots instead of getting the ball into the posts first. The Trojans began to claw back, with Hillary Todd launching a 3-pointer and the Trojans suddenly hitting everything they threw up to lead 7-6 with 1:29 left. But then Michelle Schulte, the tiny but deadly version of the Schulte sisters, started beating the Trojans with her passing as she picked up three assists during a 19-0 run that left Northeast in control; she fed Rachel Runde on the baseline for a score to put Northeast up for good. Kristin Sherry posted up inside and hit two free throws after a pass from Runde, Michelle scored off a steal on the press, and Schmitz hit one out of two free throws to make it 13-7 after one quarter.
Big Bad Blair ran wild at the start of the second quarter as Rachel Runde found her inside, she got loose on a fast break and Emily Bryant found her for the layup, and then Emily found Blair in the post to make it 19-7. It didn't matter that Union Star was sagging off on Blair and surrounding her with 2 or 3 defenders; Blair was blowing by them like they were not there. Michelle Schulte then found a posted Kristin Sherry inside twice and then Kristin Sherry hit a pair of free throws to cap the run. Free throws from Michelle Schulte and Blair Schmitz made it 27-11 at the half.
In the third quarter, Big Bad Blair continued to run wild, posting up at will, drawing fouls, and getting on the line. She scored eight times from the line and scored two buckets from the field for 12 points in the period as Union Star was seemingly trying to bring the Hack-a-Shaq strategy to the high school level without success. Blair also added a kickout to Michelle Schulte on the right wing and had a sweet rejection on the other end which created a fast break in which Michelle Schulte found Rachel Runde for the layup. Northeast capped the run as Michelle Schulte took a charge and the Blair stepped through two defenders and turned it into a 3-point play at the end of the third period.
During garbage time, Taylor Dougan hit a long 3-pointer from the top of the key at the beginning of the fourth quarter while Sarah Bliley hit a shot from the right side.
No comments:
Post a Comment