Kristin Herndon Swipes 10, Peyton Coleman Posts 1,600th Career Point at Courtwarming

North Nodaway’s girls were thrown for a scare as South Holt’s Sadee Prussman went off on then for 16 points after knocking down everything during warmups from behind the arc. It looked for all the world like it would be one of the better games in the area as North Nodaway led 28-26 late in the half as Prussman had 16 of her team’s 26 points. But then she said something that the ref didn’t care to hear and got a technical foul. Their coach, Rick German, benched her for the rest of the game and North Nodaway was able to pull away for the 57-44 Courtwarming victory.

Madison Thompson got her normal output for North Nodaway, getting 16 points. But it was the play of Kristin Herndon along with the team’s free throw shooting which put them over the top. Herndon posted a career high of 15 points and wreaked havoc on defense with 10 steals, as she punished mistakes right and left. Bethany Herndon added 5 steals for North Nodaway.

South Holt’s boys came into Friday’s game with a 19-3 record, but North Nodaway showed they were up to the challenge of playing the Knights even though they lost 64-63. The lead swung back and forth for three quarters until the Knights finally gained some separation to start the fourth, getting an 11 point lead with four minutes left. They were still up 10 at 60-50 with 1:49 left when Peyton Coleman hit a 3-pointer and Tyler Bix added a putback to make it 60-55. North Nodaway got it down to 63-60 with 16 seconds left, but then Eric Ottman’s free throw put the Knights up 64-60 with 12.2 seconds left. 

Peyton Coleman’s 3-pointer was tipped and a scramble resulted in the ball rolling into the background out of bounds off South Holt with 2.2 seconds left, too late to affect the outcome. But at the buzzer, Coleman let fly a guarded 3-pointer that went in. The officials initially didn’t count the shot, but changed their minds and let it count to put Coleman over the 1,600 mark at 1,601 career points as a Mustang.

South Holt followed Worth County’s lead and played the same early help defense that the Tigers had used on Coleman, but the Mustangs were able to get a lot more scoring out of their other players. Coleman had 29 points. Dakota Smyser had 13, Arron Coleman had 12 (career high), Cole Bird had 7, and Tyler Bix 2. Dakota Smyser’s shooting for the Mustangs in the third quarter helped keep them in the game and even go ahead.