Bluejay Boys Beat CFX in Coach Madden's Homecoming

Northeast Nodaway's boys beat CFX 44-33 in Coach Ryan Madden's return home as the Bluejays recovered from a 70-64 loss to Elwood the night before. Madden said that he enjoyed his return to CFX, spending time talking with some of their people after the game. "I'm proud of our kids and if CFX had won, I would have been proud of them," he said. "The difference between CFX and Elwood was that we hit our free throws against CFX and against Elwood, we didn't." The game was much different than the night before; in the Elwood game, neither team could stop the other; the boys game was actually lower scoring than the girls game in the CFX game.

Both offenses were sluggish to start out with and Northeast had trouble breaking the CFX press, but the Bluejays used six straight points from Bryce Farnan to stay in the game as the first quarter featured four ties before the period ended in a 10-10 standoff. The game slowed to a crawl in the second period as neither team could get anything going against the other and both defenses were getting the other team out of their offenses. Finally, Bryce Farnan took a lob from Colby Wiederholt and then got a defensive board on the other end and drew a foul, hitting two free throws to make it 16-12 with 2:41 left. It was the first time that either team had led by more than one possession. Colby Wiederholt beat the trap and scored four straight points as Northeast led by as much as 20-13 before settling for a 20-15 halftime advantage.

There was a long lull in the scoring, but Kevin Stoll finally hit a 3-pointer to make it 23-15 with 4:15 left in the third. But then CFX started jumping passes and getting layups after Graham Scarbrough got a putback as CFX finally closed to within 23-20. Bryce Farnan's putback made it 25-20 going into the fourth.

Northeast continued to lead from 3 to 5 points throughout much of the fourth quarter, but then Bryce Farnan and Kevin Stoll picked up their fourth fouls and sat on the bench as Scarbrough hit an NBA 3-pointer to make it 30-28. Dalton Welch hit one out of two free throws and Colby Wiederholt got a steal after CFX had just gotten one for a layup to make it 33-28. But then Nathan Hinrichs hit a 3-pointer and then Scarbrough hit two free throws to tie it up at 33 with 3:01 left.

Colby Wiederholt went in for a wide open layup with 2:20 left after a long possession and missed point blank as it went in and out. Northeast fouled Nathan Hinrichs on the ensuing possession and CFX had a chance to take the lead with the 1 and 1. But the front end of the 1 and 1 was in and out and with the new lease on life, Colby Wiederholt cleaned up on a miss in transition to put Northeast up for good at 35-33 with 2:03 left. He was fouled on the play and missed the free throw, but then Hinrichs and Scarbrough each missed 3-pointers that would have put CFX up by one and then Dalton Welch got the ball into Colby Wiederholt inside for a 3-point play to make it a two possession game with 1:14 left. Hinrichs missed wildly on a layup try and Northeast went six for six from the line in the final minute.