The shorthanded Northeast Nodaway girls team was denied third place as they won their first game by 3 against West Nodaway but fell 52-24 to North Nodaway and 41-32 against CFX in Northwest Missouri Tournament action last weekend. The girls lost Claudia Wiederholt to a concussion as she had a head to head collision with Taryn Farnan in the West Nodaway game. She tried to play against North Nodaway, but she was still feeling the effects of the collision and she did not play at all against CFX. Without Claudia, Northeast struggled even more than usual against the presses that other teams threw at them and had trouble getting into their offense and running their plays as they missed both her ballhandling and her scoring throughout the tournament. She will be out indefinitely, meaning that Northeast will have to find a way to win without her somehow.
Northeast managed to hold off West Nodaway to win as Taryn Farnan had 15 for the Bluejays. But Northeast struggled against the North Nodaway press right off the bat, dropping passes, doing too much dribbling, telegraphing passes, and makeup fouls as they fell behind 8-2. Holly Redden countered with a steal and followed with a 3-pointer and Dallis Coffelt tied it with a free throw with 58.2 seconds left, but then Northeast gave up two turnovers and a shooting foul to fall behind 14-8 after one quarter.
Taryn Farnan picked up her third foul in the second quarter and had to sit down and Northeast did not have an answer for the Mustang shooters. It did not help that the referees were not paying attention to the game; North Nodaway players threw at least five forearms that were not called by the officials in the half. But a lot of Northeast's struggles in the second quarter were self-inflicted; the officials did not make them forget the plays on offense or dribble right into traps. In desperation, Coach Vance Proffitt put Taryn back in despite three fouls and tried little-used Allie Runde at one point. Kristan Judd was one of the few bright spots in the period, getting a couple of assists and a bucket in the period.
The second half turned into a layup drill for North Nodaway for the first three minutes before Dallis Coffelt got behind the defense against the press and stopped the bleeding with a layup following a pass from Taryn Farnan. But a free throw from Brianna Riley, two free throws from Taryn Farnan, and a putback from Coffelt were the only other points scored by Northeast in the period. To symbolize Northeast's struggles, there was a four-minute stretch late in the third and early in the fourth where they dropped four balls which either went out of bounds or into Mustang players' hands. North Nodaway finally triggered the running clock halfway through the fourth quarter before the JV squads finished up the night.
Against CFX, Northeast was doing too much dribbling and forgetting the plays on offense and struggling to buy a defensive board on defense. They also got too caught up in the hacking and fouling that night. The officials were calling the game really tight that night; the sign of a good team is one that can adjust to the officiating on any given night. On the positive side, Northeast managed to stay in the game and keep it competitive this time despite their struggles and despite being shorthanded that night. They did a much better job of guarding the perimeter, limiting CFX to only one 3-pointer; they also did a better job of limiting transition baskets and getting back on defense, meaning that it did not turn into a layup drill like the North Nodaway game was.
Despite having only seven players, CFX pressed Northeast even after missed shots. That created a ton of jumped passes and makeup fouls, allowing CFX to build up a 12-7 lead midway through the second quarter, an eternity given the low scoring nature of Northeast's games. The move nearly backfired for CFX, however. Coaches frequently tell their players to get aggressive, but many times, players will then confuse being aggressive with hacking and fouling, which their players were doing a lot of. Consequently, two of their players had three fouls and one had four, meaning that they were in danger of finishing with four players. It happens on the other side of the ball as well; coaches will tell their players to be less tentative and attack the defense. But some players confuse that with, for example, dribbling right into a double team and getting stripped of the ball or throwing a baseball pass down the court that is not there.
Northeast trailed 13-8 of this low-scoring match at the half. Defensively, they were playing well enough to stay in the game and they were not giving up the kind of cheap buckets that they were against North Nodaway. But offensively, they needed some kind of spark to change the momentum and get their confidence back.
Northeast fell behind 17-8 right off the bat in the second half, but Taryn Farnan, who had been limited to 4 points in the first half, put some life into Northeast with a drive and spin move that changed the momentum. CFX was in foul trouble, which forced them to take off their press, making it much easier for Northeast to get into their offense. Northeast did a much better job of crashing the offensive glass in the third quarter as Kerrigan Adwell had a free throw and Farnan, Kristan Judd, and Kaysie Wiederholt all got second and third chance putbacks. Wiederholt's putback made it 19-17 CFX, but then Northeast tried a press and it backfired as CFX got a layup against it to kill Northeast's momentum as they scored the next six points to go up 25-17. Taryn Farnan got a putback at the buzzer and then Kristan Judd found her inside to make it 25-21 at the start of the fourth. But then Northeast went into another funk after Dallis Coffelt fouled out of the game.
Northeast did too much dribbling on offense during the next stretch and CFX was able to build their lead up to 30-23 at the 1:49 mark. Kerrigan Adwell then made a great play by crashing the offensive boards and drawing Aleesha Ball's 5th foul; that got CFX down to four players but it turned out to be too late. Missed free throws and a turnover allowed Northeast to make a final run as Taryn Farnan hit a shot from the high post off a pass from Judd; Kristan then found Jill Spire on the right baseline for a shot, and then Judd got a putback to make it 34-30 with 45.8 seconds left. But then Ryan Hopkins made seven out of eight free throws during the final 44.5 seconds and Taryn Farnan fouled out after losing the ball trying to drive to the basket with 37.5 seconds left and trying to get it back.
Taryn Farnan did all she could for Northeast in the game offensively; following her slow start, she finished with 16 points. She has had 11, 12, 13, 15, and now 16 in a game, meaning she might be due for 17 this week. Farnan has turned into a reliable double digit scorer for Northeast this year. Now that she has started getting back into flow of the game following her extended layoff, Kristan Judd started showing what she is capable of, making everyone else around her better. She was among the assist leaders in both the North Nodaway and CFX games. The goal for the team will be to learn to play together without Claudia on the floor and find someone who can score in addition to Taryn. If they meet that goal, then they will have much better depth by the time Claudia returns.
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