Northeast Nodaway's girls flipped the tables and knocked off CFX 33-21, a team that had their number last year. Claudia Wiederholt had a season high 8 points for Northeast as she had a season high for the Bluejays. Following a discouraging 47-31 loss to South Nodaway, a game in which Claudia didn't play due to getting hit in the eye with a ball during pregame warmups, Northeast hacked and fouled their way into a 30-point hole against once-beaten North Andrew. But then they played their best half of the year and at least put points on the board in a 66-41 loss to the Cardinals.
Northeast then had to play CFX, a team that had beaten them twice last year. In the first game, they were doomed by sloppy play; in the second game, they did too much hacking and fouling. But in Tuesday night's game, they cleaned all that up and got the win. It started out by allowing CFX only one shot down the court on defense; both Taryn Farnan and Dallis Coffelt hit double figures in rebounding, snagging 11 each. Dallis added two blocks on defense and Claudia one as they were able to patrol the paint and erase mistakes. Offensively, Claudia's ballhandling made all the difference as Northeast had a season-low six turnovers. That was an important stat as in a battle between two good defensive teams, every possession is important.
It all added up to Coach Vance Proffitt being as relaxed as he's been all year while patrolling the sidelines for Northeast. The Bluejays didn't get a lot of scoring; points were hard to come by for both teams. But they had balanced scoring in the win. Claudia Wiederholt and Taryn Farnan had 8 points each while Dallis Coffelt had 6, Jill Spire had 4, Holly Redden had 3, and Kerrigan Adwell and Brianna Riley had 2 each. Claudia added some outside shooting on a night when Holly Redden had an off night. Defensively, Taryn Farnan showed why she is one of the best on the ball defenders in the area. Sophomore standout Ryan Hopkins was constantly trying to push the ball up the floor and get her team back in the game. But just as often, Taryn was there to stop her; thanks to her size, Hopkins did not have a lot of good outside looks. Hopkins got her points, but she was not able to take over the game.
Northeast had four different players get in the scoring column in the first quarter; Holly Redden had a 3-pointer from the left side off a pass from Taryn Farnan, Dallis Dawn had a free throw and got a long outlet to Taryn for a layup, and Claudia added a pullup. That was all the scoring for Northeast, but CFX did not have a single good look the whole period. Their only points came when Baylee Lewis hit an outside shot with Holly Redden draped all over her as Northeast led 8-2.
Hopkins hit a pair of free throws to start the scoring for the Hornets in the second, but then Kerrigan Adwell got loose off a good backdoor look to get Northeast going. Claudia hit a shot from the right wing and another from the top of the key and Dallis Coffelt and Taryn Farnan added free throws to put Northeast up 16-4. Just as importantly, Northeast got Hopkins in foul trouble to kill any chances of a rally late in the half.
Between two evenly matched teams, it is only a matter of time before the one trailing starts to make a run and CFX suddenly started hitting some shots to cut it to 18-11, prompting Proffitt to switch from zone back to man to man for the rest of the game. Northeast played through a four minute scoring drought to start the second on the other end. Brianna Riley had her only two points of the game, but they were huge as she took a pass from Dallis Coffelt and hit a jumper with 3:48 left in the third to break CFX's momentum. Dallis threw a long skip pass to Taryn Farnan for a layup to get Northeast's lead back into double digits at 22-11 with 2:01 left in the third.
Once again, CFX tried to get the momentum as Alyssa Lewis' sidearm sling from downtown somehow went in early in the fourth to get the Bulldogs to within eight at 24-16. CFX ran a trap at Northeast and put their press back on, to no avail. One goal of a full court press is to funnel the ball into one of the corners just across the timeline, where two players can easily trap one. But a noticeable difference between the CFX and South Nodaway games was that Northeast kept the ball out of the trap area for the most part and got it to the middle of the floor, where it is much harder to trap. Taryn Farnan hit Dallis Coffelt on a backdoor layup and then Holly Redden hit her inside and then Taryn Farnan grabbed an offensive board and drew Hopkins' fourth foul to take away CFX's aggression on defense and put Northeast up 31-19 with 4:02 left.
There was one scary moment at the 2:25 mark when Claudia got a hard foul as CFX was frantically trying to get the ball back and was shaken up; however, she came back in on the next dead ball and got a pass from Holly Redden for the dagger with 1:15 left, a fast break layup that prompted the CFX coach to throw in the towel.
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