Tempers were flaring and there were multiple ejections in both games at the Platte Valley Conference Tournament in Stewartsville Thursday night. In the girls game that evening, the consolation game was a hard-fought game between Osborn and South Nodaway. During the course of that game, one of the Osborn players was shaken up and one of the Osborn fans came down from the stands to confront the officials about a non-call. He was ejected from the game by the Stewartsville principal along with another fan who had said something that the principal and the officials did not care to hear.
There were more tempers and ejections during the Northeast Nodaway boys 60-46 loss to DeKalb that evening. With the Bluejays trailing 42-26 late in the third quarter, Coach Chaim Jenkins was staring at a 1-3 start to a season that had looked to be promising. Finally, frustration set in and he drew a technical foul from one of the officials for protesting a non-call late in the period. Jenkins argued some more and then was ejected by another official. One of the Northeast Nodaway players was then ejected for saying something that the referee did not care to hear. Assistant Coach Caleb Wardlow managed the team in Jenkins' absence and also managed the team in Tuesday night's game since the ejection carries a mandatory one-game suspension under MSHSAA rules. Jenkins was allowed to manage Monday night's JV game since the suspension rules apply to like contests (varsity vs. varsity) and not unlike contests (varsity vs. JV).
But the officials did not make the Northeast Nodaway boys struggle against the DeKalb press that day. Steven Schulte picked up his second foul halfway through the first quarter and had to sit; that took away a lot of Northeast's ballhandling. The basic idea for breaking a press is to get someone to the middle of the floor and get them the ball so that they can start a 3 on 2 break or slow down so that the team can run their half court offense. But nobody was taking the middle of the floor for Northeast, meaning that their guards were frequently trapped and turned the ball over. Northeast was not getting out and guarding the DeKalb shooters, resulting in some 3-pointers for the Tigers. Consequently, DeKalb scored 14 straight points to take control of the game early at 18-5.
Northeast missed some easy looks at the start of the second, but Kevin Stoll's free throws with 6:16 left in the second broke the run. Joel Scroggie came off the bench for Northeast to provide some size and rebounding for them. But they were still struggling against the press and then committing makeup fouls afterwards, allowing DeKalb to maintain their 13 point lead at halftime, 31-18.
A missed boxout led to a DeKalb 3-pointer that sparked a 5-0 run to start the second half, but then Northeast finally started using the middle and attacking the press, getting some shots from Aaron Patton and Kevin Stoll to get the lead down to 36-24. But then DeKalb went into their stall, pulling the ball out top and freezing it, forcing Northeast to come out and guard them despite their 2-3 zone. As Northeast started hurrying shots on offense, DeKalb's adjustment opened a lot of passing and driving lanes for the rest of the third as they built up their lead to 16 before the ugly scene near the end of the period.
Kevin Stoll led Northeast Nodaway with 14 points, followed by Joel Scroggie with a career high 13. Aaron Patton had 9, Steve Schulte had 5, Garet Jackson had 3, and Shaun Burns had 2. The Bluejays struggled at the line, shooting 7 for 15.
The consolation semifinals featured an emotional encounter between the Bluejays and their former coach, Ryan Madden, who coached them to their last winning season two years ago, when the boys were 19-8. Madden is now the head boys coach at Osborn. Last year's meeting between Northeast and Osborn was close, but this time, Northeast won 68-43 as their shots were all falling that night. Steve Schulte had three 3-pointers and the team had 10 for the game.
The boys lost 52-42 to Stewartsville to open the tournament. Offensively, they did not get going until it was too late, scoring 20 of their 42 points in the final period. They dug themselves into a 24-16 halftime hole that they could not get out of. Kevin Stoll had 16 points, followed by Aaron Patton with 10. Sage DeLong had 7, Steve Schulte had 4, Garet Jackson had 3, and Shaun Burns 2. The Bluejays shot 15 for 29 from the line. There were a lot of fouls in the game as Northeast went to the line 29 times and Stewartsville went to the line 32 times.
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