Northeast Nodaway’s girls overcame first half foul trouble and pulled away with a strong third quarter to beat Worth County 25-13 Thursday.
Hadley DeFreece and Sasha Deardorff connected early to push Northeast to a 4-0 lead after one. But then foul trouble began to take its toll, as Hadley DeFreece sat down with three fouls in the first five minutes. Sasha Deardorff and Skyler Florea followed her to the bench early in the second quarter.
But the rest of the blue shirts held the fort despite the best efforts of Bridgette Hightshoe, who knocked down two mid-range jumpers in the second to put Worth County on the board. Gracie Kohlleppel countered with a drive and Makenzie Pride countered with a shot from the high post as Northeast maintained its four point lead and led 8-4 at the half.
Northeast put together a big scoring outburst in the third with 13 points, nearly equaling its entire output against Platte Valley and Stanberry. First, Skyler Florea drew Abbi Brown’s third foul and hit two free throws. Brylea Paxson countered for Worth County with a shot from the left wing, but Skyler scored from inside off a pass from Sasha Deardorff and went coast to coast for a three point play. Hadley DeFreece went coast to coast for another transition basket and Lindsey Jackson, normally a jump shooter, scored off a drive to put Northeast up by double digits at 19-6.
Rylee Ruckman, who did all she could for Worth County in Thursday’s efforts, countered with a 3-pointer to stop the bleeding, and then she grabbed an offensive board and fed Hightshoe for another jumper to make it 19-11. Ruckman finished the game with four assists for the Tigers. Hadley DeFreece fed Skyler Florea in the post to restore order and put Northeast up 21-11 after three.
The difference between the first and second halves for Northeast was the fact that they were pushing the ball up the floor more, and the fact that they were able to adjust to the officiating; nobody picked up their fourth foul, and the Bluejays didn’t get called for their first foul of the second half until midway through the fourth quarter, when everything was decided.
Worth County got an unfortunate break at the start of the fourth quarter when the officials called a foul on the wrong player. Brylea Paxson was the only gold shirt anywhere near the play, but the officials gave the foul to Abbi Brown, which was her fifth; without their best post player and rebounder, Worth County had a hard time mounting any kind of a comeback effort.
Lindsey Jackson cut inside and got an inbounds pass from Hadley DeFreece and Jackson hit Florea inside to put Northeast up 25-11 at the 3:57 mark of the fourth quarter.
For Northeast, Skyler Florea had 11 points, all in the second half. Lindsey Jackson and Hadley DeFreece had 4, while Sasha Deardorff, Gracie Kohlleppel, and Makenzie Pride had 2 each.
For Worth County, Bridgette Hightshoe did all she could, as she had 7 points. Rylee Ruckman had 3 and Brylea Paxson 2.
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