Tuesday, November 24, 2015

NEN Teams Drop Close Losses to Albany

Northeast Nodaway's teams came up shorthanded, dropping two close losses to Albany. The girls led Albany 24-12 at the half. They had every right to expect a win against the Warriors, who won one game last year. But then they lost their composure in the second half against Albany's press. Instead of slowing things down and running their plays, they sped things up and tried to do too much; instead of working the ball to the middle, they were taking the ball up the sidelines and right into the traps. Consequently, they lost their lead by the end of the third quarter, falling behind 29-28 after three quarters. Dallis Coffelt's basket early in the fourth put them back in front 32-31, but then they fell behind for good and couldn't catch up.

Northeast fell behind by as much as five before free throws from Coffelt and Talina Nelson cut it to 38-36; they got the ball back with under 2 minutes left, but Dallis Coffelt missed a runner that would have tied it. Talina Nelson hit two free throws with 1:25 left that cut it to 39-38, but they couldn't buy a board that would have gotten them a chance to go ahead and they had to start fouling; Albany hit six of their last eight free throws down the stretch. Makayla Adwell's putback with six seconds left made it 44-43, but Northeast had no more timeouts and Albany was able to hold the ball out of bounds with the clock running and get it in with 1.8 seconds, forcing Northeast to foul. Heidi Fish's free throw made it 45-43; with Northeast going the full length of the floor, they couldn't get a shot off in time.

Dallis Coffelt had 18 to lead Northeast. Talina Nelson had 11, Makayla Adwell 5, Jill Spire 4, Taylor Coffelt 3, and Allie Runde 2.

The boys were shorthanded Tuesday night and came up short in a defensive struggle 42-33. They only had two scoring threats for most of the night, which spoiled a good defensive effort. The game swung back and forth for most of the night; Northeast trailed 6-2 early, but fought back and took a 10-6 lead early in the second behind Andrew Freemyer's inside basket off a pass from Rowdy West. Albany took a 16-12 lead at the half, but Northeast scored on its first three possessions of the third to move back in front 18-16. But then Northeast lost track of Caden Wilson of Albany; he ran wild late in the third and early in the fourth; 6'5" Seth Cline got loose on the offensive boards once and loose on a backdoor look another time as Albany took an insurmountable 32-24 lead at the 3:26 mark of the fourth. The challenge for Coach Vance Proffitt, who switched from the girls to the boys this year, will be to find more scoring options for his team.

Max Giesken did all he could for Northeast, getting 19 to lead the way. Andrew Freemyer had 10 and Colton Wilmes and Chet Spire had 2 each.

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