Northeast Nodaway's boys are getting closer to full strength, but still went 1-2 in the Northwest Missouri Tournament, falling in the 3rd place battle with South Nodaway. The boys won their opening round game with North Nodaway by 17, getting a lot of balanced scoring. Joel Scroggie had 17, Garet Jackson 15, and Steve Schulte 13 as they showed that they were capable of putting five people on the floor who could score at all times.
That set up a matchup with Nodaway-Holt for the right to go to the championship game. Northeast led the whole way, but faltered at the end to fall to Nodaway-Holt 49-46. Nodaway-Holt was supposed to have an easy path to the finals, but Kevin Stoll got loose behind the Trojan defense and Shaun Burns came off the bench early to give Northeast a spark, throwing a fast break pass to Garet Jackson to put Northeast up 11-7. Northeast struggled on the boards against the Trojans and fell behind, but Joel Scroggie got loose on the offensive boards and Steve Schulte threw him a breathtaking bounce pass for a layup to put Northeast back in front late in the first half. Nodaway-Holt was called for a moving screen and Shaun Burns hit a backdoor pass to Kevin Stoll to make it 21-18 at the half.
Everything started going Northeast's way in the third quarter as Aaron Patton scored off a steal, Steve Schulte hit a 3-pointer, and Garet Jackson and Aaron Patton scored off fast breaks as Northeast led by as much as 33-23. But then Joel Scroggie got shaken up and hurt his ankle; although he came back in, he was still favoring the ankle. These sorts of minor injuries can sap a team's momentum right when they need it most.
Throughout the third quarter, Northeast had been allowing the Trojans one shot down the court, but they were giving up too many offensive boards in the fourth quarter as Nodaway-Holt cut it to 36-33. Nodaway-Holt tried a press, but Joel, who was back in the game, got behind the defense for a pass from Shaun Burns to make it 38-33. But then Northeast let Nick Patterson all alone from behind the arc; the key to defense is to know the other team's shooters and they lost track of him as his 3-pointer tied it up at 38.
Defensively, Northeast was getting sealed at will inside in the fourth quarter and Nodaway-Holt threw a lob pass to Stephen Schneidermeyer for a layup, but Kevin Stoll's free throws after an offensive board tied it at 40 with 3:53 left. Kevin then got a steal, but his layup try bounced twice off the rim before falling out and nobody got back on defense. Derek Lemon was all alone for a 2-shot foul and hit both tries. Nodaway-Holt built up a four-point lead as they were sealing inside at will, but then they tried to switch from a man to a 2-3 on an inbounds situation and it backfired as Steve Schulte got behind the defense on an inbounds play to cut it to 2. Steve then hit from the high post to tie it at 46 with 52 seconds left after Northeast got a stop by putting on a full court man to man press and got the Trojans to rush a couple of close shots.
Northeast needed one more stop to send it to overtime, but they didn't get it as they gave up a backdoor layup with 35 seconds left. Steve Schulte had the hot hand for Northeast and got a good look, but missed this time; however, he followed his shot and got a tieup and the arrow was pointing to Northeast with 14.2 seconds left. Northeast got the ball to Aaron Patton, but he got trapped on the wing and the ball went out of bounds off a Trojan with seven seconds left. Northeast got it into Kevin, but he was caught behind the backboard on the baseline and his off-balance shot was well short of the rim and Northeast had to foul. Jackson Beattie made his first free throw, missed his second, got his own board, and his layup try balanced on the rim after bouncing a few times as time expired.
Some teams get demoralized after a loss like this while others get more focused and play better. But Northeast played like they were still demoralized from the Nodaway-Holt loss in the first 2+ quarters, digging themselves into a 20-point hole before getting it back into single digits. But a referee's mistake killed their momentum in the fourth quarter and they went on to lose 36-25 to South Nodaway in the third place game.
South Nodaway came out with a very active 2-3 zone that is hard for teams to play against. They have some very quick guards, meaning that they can cover a lot more of the floor than usual, forcing teams to shoot farther out than usual if they want a 3-pointer. They also have the size to stop drives to the basket as well. Northeast had trouble solving the Longhorn zone, getting some passes jumped, taking drives that were not there, and then committing makeup fouls after turning the ball over. Consequently, they did not put a point on the board until the 5:20 mark of the second quarter, when Aaron Patton's fast break finally went in.
Defensively, South Nodaway was scoring at will against Northeast's man to man, putting up 11 points in the first four minutes of the game. Northeast was not helping out on defense and they were getting sealed at will like they were in the Nodaway-Holt game. Finally, Coach Chaim Jenkins switched to a 2-3 zone and Northeast did a much better job of matching up with the Longhorns after that. South Nodaway hit a 3-pointer right off the bat, but then Northeast did a much better job of rotating on defense and getting in peoples' faces and they held South Nodaway scoreless for the last 3:30 of the first quarter. Offensively, Northeast was finally starting to get good looks late in the period, but they were not finishing and they were missing a ton of easy shots.
The frustration factor continued to mount in the second period as Northeast played much better on defense, but nothing was going in on offense. The goal for the team in upcoming contests will be to play through such cold spells; frustration can make a cold streak go from bad to worse and let the other team know that they're doing their job. Northeast could make no impression on South Nodaway, trailing 20-6 at the break.
Coach Chaim Jenkins started Jason Henggeler, little-used this year due to his hip injury, in the second half. He was very active on defense, but nothing seemed to work for Northeast on offense as South Nodaway built up their lead to 20 at 28-8 as Northeast continued to press too much on offense and miss a ton of good looks.
But all of a sudden, Shaun Burns came off the bench to give Northeast a spark as he hit an NBA 3-pointer from the left wing with 1:30 left in the period. That seemed to be a turning point for Northeast as they suddenly looked like a completely different team for the next several minutes. Shaun showed why he has been earning more and more playing time over the last two games; he was jumping passes on defense and was getting everyone involved on offense with his passing. Joel Scroggie, who had been missing all night, suddenly got loose down the right baseline and connected to make it 28-13. Joel scored again with a backdoor layup as Northeast was finally starting to stretch the South Nodaway zone and get some good looks on offense.
On the other end of the floor, Kevin Stoll took a charge on defense and Steve Schulte made them pay with a 3-pointer that got them under double digits with six minutes left at 28-20. Shaun Burns then jumped a pass and stole it for a layup to make it 28-22 and then jumped another pass and Northeast had a chance to cut it to four with plenty of time left. But then Steve Schulte got called for a charge, his fourth foul and South Nodaway scored on their next possession to make it 30-22.
South Nodaway got it back up to 32-24 and then got a stop on defense, and then the referees made a mistake, calling a foul on the wrong player and sending Steve Schulte to the bench with his fifth foul with 3:24 left. In the play in question, both Steve and Aaron Patton were playing a South Nodaway player and if a foul was to be called on anyone, it was on Patton, who was trying to get a steal and the ball back with time running out. But the referee got the number wrong and called it on 12 (Steve Schulte's number) instead of 22 (Aaron Patton's number), which swung the momentum back in South Nodaway's favor again. There have been other cases of the officials calling fouls on the wrong player in the last couple of years as well. Without Schulte, the Bluejays were missing one of their main ballhandlers and they started pressing on offense again as South Nodaway was able to run the clock out on defense.
Coach Chaim Jenkins said that while Northeast's zone defense looked good, the team was too tentative on offense. "We struggled until the second half; we were too sluggish and played back on our heels on offense," he said. "We were a lot less tentative in the second half." He had a lot of praise for Burns and his play, which helped spark the team in the second half. "He knows when to jump passes and when not to," he said. While the team went 1-2 in the tournament, they are getting closer to full strength as Jason Henggeler has been getting more and more playing time. "He's coming along on defense; we've just got to get him back into the flow of things on offense," said Jenkins.
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