Northeast Nodaway's boys pulled away from Rock Port in the fourth to win 55-38 Friday as Spencer Weir came out of a slump and Chet Spire and Ethan Adwell played their best games as Bluejays. Coach Rory Jackson said his team was a work in progress and that Spire was finally showing the aggression he had been looking for, learning to penetrate defenses and find the open person. Rock Port got only 10 offensive boards, but nearly every one of them turned into points; however, Ethan Adwell got most of his seven boards in the second half after Coach Jackson had challenged him and the rest of the team on rebounding at the half.
The Bluejays came off a 61-37 loss to East Atchison, one of three favorites to win the title along with Jefferson and Mound City. "We didn't really play that bad," said Jackson, who said that the team's offensive execution was really good that game despite the score. He said East Atchison had a lot of length and athleticism, but that his squad was capable of making runs against them. "But every time we'd make a run on them, they'd make a bigger one back," he said.
Rock Port came into the game with a 3-2 record and a quality win over South Holt to their credit. They were young, but really athletic, with Ethan Brumbaugh and Kalen LaHue both capable of lighting up the scoreboard at any time.
Northeast overcame Rock Port's rebounding and a rash of first half hacking and fouling. Dylan Vore carried the team in the first quarter, getting six quick points to stake his team to a 9-2 lead before sitting with two fouls. He picked up another early in the second and sat for the rest of the half. Domonic Evans got a putback and three point play to make it 9-5, but Ben Boswell came off the bench and got a putback at the buzzer to make it 11-5.
Spencer Weir hit back to back threes to make it 17-7, but missed a third and Brumbaugh raced back the other way and hit one of his own to make it 17-10 in the second. Despite all the hacking and fouling by Northeast -- the margin was 10-4 at one point in the second -- they maintained their lead and finally pulled away to a 28-17 halftime lead as Reed McIntyre got the hot hand late.
Spencer Weir hit Mitchell Sherry inside and Chet Spire sliced through the Rock Port defense in transition to make it 31-17 early. The lead grew to 37-22 following Mitchell Sherry's skip pass to Spire, who drove the left baseline for the finish, but then Ethan Brumbaugh found himself all alone for three as Northeast started losing track of him on defense. He added a putback and Kalen LaHue hit a prayer at the buzzer and a three point play to make it 37-30 again.
The teams traded blows to start the fourth as Brumbaugh tried to carry the Rock Port squad on his back, scoring six straight. But after his free throws cut Rock Port's deficit to six at 42-36, they didn't score another point until the closing seconds of the game. Meanwhile, Chet Spire hit Spencer Weir for three and Weir added a steal. Spire hit a free throw, went coast to coast after a defensive board and found Ethan Adwell for a finish, and Dylan Vore got a steal and aired it out to Spencer Weir for a three point play. Ethan Adwell's free throws with 2:32 left gave NEN its biggest lead of the night at 55-36.
Northeast had eight players in the scoring column and ten in the rebounding column. Spencer Weir had 18, Chet Spire 9, Dylan Vore 8, Ethan Adwell and Reed McIntyre 6 each, Mitchell Sherry 5, Ben Bowell 2, and Auston Pride 1.
Dylan Vore had 2 blocks for Northeast and Chet Spire 1.
Chet Spire had 9 boards as he nearly got a triple double, with nine points to go with his 12 assists. Ethan Adwell had 7 boards, Spencer Weir and Mitchell Sherry 5 each, Dylan Vore, Auston Pride, and Reed McIntyre 2 each, and Ben Bowell, Nathan Schieber, and Zach Pride all with 1.
Chet Spire had 12 assists for the Bluejays. Spencer Weir had 4, and Dylan Vore and Mitchell Sherry had 2.
Mitchell Sherry and Spencer Weir had 3 tips each. Dylan Vore and Zach Pride had 2 each, and Nathan Schieber, Chet Spire, Ethan Adwell, Rory Bredlow, and Reed McIntyre had 1 each.
Spencer Weir had 4 steals, while Nathan Schieber had 2. Mitchell Sherry, Chet Spire, Dylan Vore, and Zach Pride had 1.
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