Northeast Nodaway’s girls beat a pesky North Andrew squad 47-37 as they got off to a slow start but came back to beat the Cardinals and spoil their Courtwarming celebrations. Northeast Nodaway had not had a conference loss; however, a win by North Andrew, with one conference loss, would have vaulted them into the thick of things and made the Platte Valley Conference race wide open. With the win, Northeast kept pace with Jefferson with a showdown with the Eagles looming on February 8th.
Northeast couldn’t buy a defensive board in the early going and Blair Schmitz picked up two quick fouls and sat down as North Andrew built up a 7-2 lead just two minutes into the game. But luckily, Northeast was hitting from outside and Michelle Schulte, Emily Bryant, and Taylor Dougan all connected from downtown to shoot Northeast back into the game. Michelle Schulte added a pair of free throws as Northeast led 14-9 after one period.
Northeast maintained their lead at the start of the second as Kristan Judd found Rachel Runde on the right side and Michelle Schulte drove down the left side and hit two free throws over North Andrew’s tallest player, Danielle Chambers.
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But then North Andrew began driving at will on Northeast and Hallie Dudley got them back into the game, hitting twice to make it 18-17 with 4:52 left. They continued to attack the basket, getting a 21-20 lead off another drive from Dudley before Taylor Dougan found Blair Schmitz inside to put Northeast back in front 22-21 at the half.
Northeast had to take some charges to stop North Andrew from driving to the basket; they had to stay out of foul trouble – Kristan Judd had three fouls and Emily Bryant two in addition to Blair. They needed to box out better on defense. In addition, they needed someone to take over the game – Coach Eric Fairchild called Michelle Schulte right before the second half and talked to her. “We needed her to score more and not just get us set up in the offense,” said Coach Eric Fairchild. “We boxed out better in the second half, and we switched defenses a lot and that helped buy us some stops as well.”
Northeast succeeded in all areas – they were able to stay out of serious foul trouble in the second half; they took two charges in the third quarter which took away some of North Andrew’s aggression. They boxed out better; North Andrew only got two second chance points in the second half. And Michelle scored four points right off the bat to put Northeast back in control of the game.
Coach Fairchild made a defensive switch by putting Schulte on Dudley to start the second half and the move paid off right away as the tiny but deadly Schulte girl stripped Dudley right off the bat and turned it into two free throws at the other end. Northeast got a stop on the other end and then the tiny but deadly version of the Schulte family grabbed an offensive board and threw up a high-arching floater over a taller player and knocked it down to make it 26-21. Kristin Sherry then got a steal off the press and threw it to Emily Bryant for a layup to make it 28-21.
Northeast tried to switch from their man press to their zone press, a move that backfired when North Andrew burned it several times to come back to within 30-27. But then Michelle Schulte took a charge on defense and neither team could get any scoring going until Rachel Runde found Blair Schmitz inside to make it a two possession game. Hallie Dudley connected from the high post to make it 33-30, but then Kristin Sherry got a putback with 30 seconds left to make it 35-30 after three quarters.
Neither team could get anything going for the next two minutes, but then Rachel Runde hit Emily Bryant at the top of the key for a 3-pointer. Following a stop Bryant went in against Dudley, who had three fouls, and got the layup to make it 40-30. After another stop Michelle Schulte got the defensive board and the tiny but deadly Schulte girl got the quick outlet to Emily, who threw it to Schmitz for the layup to make it 42-30 with 4:19 left.
Shayne Hughes hit a pair of free throws and North Andrew put on a press and got a turnover as Chambers added a pair of free throws to make it 42-24. But then the tiny but deadly Schulte girl struck again as she drove against Chambers, there was a big collision, and Chambers fouled out as Schulte made out out of two. North Andrew couldn’t score on their next possession and Rachel Runde hit the posted Blair Schmitz inside to get the lead back to double digits. Northeast got another stop and they took their biggest lead of the night at 47-34 with 1:33 left when North Andrew thought Emily Bryant was going to pull it out and run some clock and she blew by two defenders and went straight down the middle of the lane for a layup to make it 47-34.
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