Saturday, January 11, 2014

Taryn Farnan Hits 20 as NEN Holds Off Tiger Rally

Northeast Nodaway's girls got their first win of the new year, beating Worth County 49-40 as they held off a late Tiger rally to get the win. Taryn Farnan got 20 points for the night, two off of her career high. She also carried Northeast on the defensive boards, collecting around 15 for the night. For Worth County, they were left still seeking their second win of the year playing against a tough set of opponents. The game will likely help Northeast in districts as the Tigers are a district opponent. They have fallen to Mercer and have beaten Worth County and Stanberry, meaning that they could be seeded as high as second.

For Worth County, the trouble started midway through the first quarter when Northeast switched into their zone press and Kaitlyn Davidson picked up her second foul and had to sit down. Northeast went on an 8-2 run to close out the period and lead 14-7. Brianna Riley's drive made it 16-7 before Worth County switched to man to man to stop the bleeding.

The game settled down into a defensive struggle with Dallis Coffelt getting two blocks in a row on one possession for Northeast and Worth County creating ball movement problems with their man to man defense. For Worth County, holding Northeast to 49 points matched their third lowest point total scored by a Tiger opponent. The Tigers scored 40 points against Northeast; that was the most that Northeast has given up defensively and lived to tell about it. Northeast is much more effective when holding teams to under 40 points; they are 7-0 when holding teams under 40 and 1-4 when allowing 40 or more.

Worth County held it to under double digits in the second quarter until late in the period, when they gifted Northeast with five points when they committed a pair of fouls 70 feet from the bucket with Northeast in the bonus. That resulted in three free throws as well as a putback for Northeast as the Bluejays led 27-16 at the break.

Holly Redden's free throw with 5:32 left put Northeast up 31-16, but then Claire Andrews (18 points, career high) got the hot hand for Worth County and her shooting kept the Tigers in the game the rest of the way. Northeast led by as much as 17 with 4:58 left in the fourth, but then Coach Vance Proffitt put in his third string too early as Worth County was not ready to quit. Kaitlyn Davidson jumped a pass and got a layup, Claire Andrews got a putback, Payton Adwell hit a pair of free throws, and Claire got a steal off the press as Worth County got it back under double digits at 44-35 with 1:02 left, forcing Proffitt to put some of his starters back in.

Sydney Thummel's free throw got Worth County to as close as 45-38 with 16 seconds left, but then she got a little too aggressive and knocked Taryn Farnan down while trying to foul her or tie her up; Taryn hit one out of two free throws and then showed no ill effects from the throwdown, beating the press for a 3-point play to put Northeast back up by 11.

Dallis Coffelt did a little bit of everything for Northeast, getting 7 points, 5 blocks, and  5 assists. Holly Redden had 9 points, doing so without the benefit of a 3-pointer.

Northeast went on to pick up a 53-33 win over Stewartsville on the road in Platte Valley Conference Play Friday. Stewartsville was determined to give a much better accounting of themselves than the first time that they played, trailing Northeast only 18-12 at the break. But Northeast finished the game strongly, putting up 35 points in the second half to come away with the win. Taryn led the scoring for Northeast with 13 points. Holly Redden battled the flu but had eight points and two 3-pointers for Northeast. Dallis Coffelt also had 8. Claudia Wiederholt had 6, Jill Spire had 5, Kaysie Wiederholt had a career high with 4, Kerrigan Adwell had 4, Brianna Riley had 3, and Bailey Judd had 2. The margin would have been bigger if Northeast had hit their free throws; they were only 7 for 22 from the line for the night.

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