Northeast Nodaway’s girls, following their disappointing third place loss to CFX in the Northwest Missouri Tournament last week, did just what the doctor ordered; the freshmen and sophomores ate out at Applebees while the upperclassmen did other bonding activities. And it didn’t hurt for them to have Jacqueline and Michelle Schulte practicing with the team, which allowed the players to see for themselves what it takes to be successful at Northeast. They came back to play this week a totally different team; they won both their games this week, a school record 35-4 win over Union Star in which they allowed the fewest points in school history and a 38-36 win over Worth County in which they lost their leading scorer Taryn Farnan in the second quarter to her ongoing shoulder problems but came back to win. They were also still without Claudia Wiederholt, who is still not playing because of her concussion.
For Worth County, there were a lot of little things that added up to a disappointing finish. The foul differential was lopsided; there were 30 fouls called on Worth County and only 8 on Northeast Nodaway. They struggled at the start of the third quarter and then gave up a momentum-changing play at the third quarter buzzer as they continued their habit of relaxing too much in the closing seconds of quarters. And Northeast did a lot of things that they hadn’t done all year; they broke Worth County’s press at will at times and did the best job of handling it all year; they also hit free throws down the stretch after having struggled to hit half their free throws much of the year.
The Worth County game started off as a tight defensive struggle for both teams until Sidney Thummel came off the bench and sparked Worth County with three steals in the period as Worth County moved out to a 6-2 lead. The Tigers were bottling up Taryn Farnan, who was scoreless in the first quarter; Taryn was battling the flu but was still playing. But Dallis Coffelt came out on fire for Northeast; she was relentlessly attacking the basket.
Things looked like roses for Worth County at the start of the second quarter. Northeast slipped back into their bad habits of forgetting the plays on offense and they were having a ton of turnovers. Meanwhile, Kristen Andrews hit a free throw after getting a steal off the press, Claire Andrews hit from the right baseline after Worth County used some pinpoint passing to break the Northeast pressure, and Kaitlyn Davidson stepped through two defenders for a layup as Worth County moved out to an 11-3 lead.
But then Holly Redden broke the run for Northeast as she stepped up and hit a 3-pointer to make it 11-6 with 4:58 left.
Kacey Smyser kept Worth County in front for most of the second quarter as Worth County was getting the ball in to her. But Taryn Farnan scored off a spin move to cut it to 14-10 as she was starting to get into the swing of things despite her flu. On the next play, Taryn landed on her bad shoulder in a collision. The play threatened to be a backbreaker for Northeast right after they had begun to play strongly, but Worth County was called for the foul on the play and Holly Redden checked in to hit both free throws to make it 14-12.
Dallis Coffelt got a steal on defense and took it in for the tying points, but Kristen Andrews got back on defense for Worth County and took a charge, setting up a putback from Sidney Thummel to make it 16-12. But Holly Redden countered with a shot from the stop of the key to make it 16-14 at the half. Holly Redden had all seven of her points in the period, just when they were needed to spark Northeast.
Nobody could score for the first three minutes of the third quarter, but then Kristan Judd, who had been scoreless for the game, broke through at the 4:58 mark and converted a 3-point play to put Northeast in front. Jill Spire cut inside and got a pass from Dallis Coffelt and then Judd scored inside again to put Northeast up 21-18 with 3:32 left in the period. For Worth County, the tragedy of the Stanberry game, in which they could not hold a big first half lead, was repeating itself.
But all of a sudden, they responded better as Kristen Andrews got a putback to tie it up. From there, Worth County’s press started working as well as it had all game. Sidney Thummel hit Kaitlyn Davidson inside after Kristen Andrews got a steal off the press. Claire Andrews hit a 3-pointer from the right wing after a possession kept alive by two offensive boards to make it 26-21 Worth County. The bleeding would have been worse for Northeast if Kristan Judd had not taken a charge on defense.
But then Worth County, like the Jefferson game, gave up a momentum-changing play at the end of the third. Dallis Coffelt hit a guarded baseline shot from the right side of the court with eight seconds left to make it 26-23. Worth County then got careless with the ball and Dallis came to the other side of the floor, stole the inbounds pass, and hit another guarded 10-footer to make it 26-25 at the buzzer.
Northeast looked alike a completely different team at the start of the fourth as Kerrigan Adwell hit Kristan Judd inside to put Northeast up 27-26. But all of a sudden, like a light switch flipped on, Claire Andrews was unconscious for Worth County, hitting shots with a hand in her face to keep Worth County in the game. Claire hit from the right side to put Worth County up 28-27 with 6:58 left.
But Northeast was solving the press as well as they had all year and Jill Spire got on the line with a free throw. She missed the second, but Judd was there for the putback to make it 30-28. But Claire struck again for Worth County, this time from the other side with a hand in her face to tie it at 30 with 5:58 left.
Claire finally cooled off for Worth County and Dallis Coffelt got on the line and hit both free throws to put Northeast ahead. Jill Spire followed with a shot from the left side off a pass from Kerrigan Adwell to make it 34-30. But then Kristen Andrews gave Worth County new life by pushing it up the floor and hitting Kacey Smyser with 3:12 left to cut it to two. Dallis Coffelt then missed a runner for Northeast and Claire struck once again to tie it at 34. Rebecca Moore forced a Northeast player out of bounds to give Worth County a chance to go ahead, but Worth County missed two tries to go ahead and Jill Spire tied up Kacey Smyser in the post with 1:49 to give Northeast the ball back.
Holly Redden missed a 3-pointer that would have put Northeast up by three, but got her own board. But then Kaitlyn Davidson got a steal as she jumped a pass and she went full speed ahead to the basket. But Kristan Judd hustled back on defense and contested the shot, forcing a miss and Northeast got the ball back. With 1:03 left, Jill Spire got into the lane and drew a foul and got a free throw chance. She missed, but Dallis Coffelt was there for the putback to put Northeast up 36-34. Claire Andrews missed a 3-pointer and Kaitlyn Davidson missed a putback try with 43 seconds left.
Sidney Thummel got a steal for Worth County near the midcourt line, but Kerrigan Adwell stole the ball right back and then Northeast took 15 seconds off the clock before Worth County could foul and get the clock stopped. But then Kerrigan Adwell hit both free throws for Northeast to make it a two possession game at 38-34 before Sidney Thummel hit a meaningless shot at the buzzer for Worth County.
For Northeast, Coach Vance Proffitt said that the win was a big confidence builder for his team. “Dallis got a lot of tips on defense and we got a lot of tieups as well,” he said. “We would have folded in the Northwest Missouri tournament, but we stepped up in a big way tonight.” For Worth County, Coach Bryce Shafar said that his team needed to work on consistency in order to avoid such losses in the future. “We had a great first half, a bad third quarter, and we did OK in the fourth,” he said. “We were very unselfish with our offense in the first half and there were a lot of positives to take out of this game. We just got away too much from what was working for us in the third quarter.
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Northeast was led by Dallis Coffelt, who had a career-high 13 points. The scary thing about it is that she’s only a freshman. Kristan Judd played the best game since coming back from her injuries and had nine. She returned to form right when the team needed her the most, with both Taryn and Claudia out with injuries. Holly Redden had 7 and Jill Spire had 5 for Northeast.
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