Skyler Florea got a double double with 10 points and 11 boards, and Northeast Nodaway’s junior high girls came back to beat Stanberry 16-14 in a cliffhanger. The Bluejays grew up in that game as they figured out they could beat a quality opponent without Baylee Busby. This will only help their depth down the road. Hadley DeFreece, despite being matched up against a strong point guard in Trista Lager, still did her thing with 7 steals, and the team once again showed it could take the ball away even from a good ballhandling team, getting 18 steals. And the Bluejays got some depth when Cora Munns, dressed out for the first time this year, came off the bench and gave them some quality minutes when they got into foul trouble.
It looked like the Platte Valley loss all over again at first, as Stanberry raced out to a 6-2 lead in the first three minutes of the game. The Bluejays looked overmatched for the second straight game after starting off the season with four wins. But all of a sudden, Northeast settled down and got a putback from Florea after Hadley DeFreece kept a possession alive to make it 6-4 after one.
The game settled down into a defensive struggle, in which both teams struggled to take care of the ball, and points were hard to come by. Lindsey Hailey got a putback to make it 9-6, but then Sasha Deardorff hit Makenzie Pride in the post and Skyler Florea in the high post as Northeast closed to within 11-10 at the half.
It looked like all their best efforts would come up short as Florea picked up her third foul in the third quarter and nothing was dropping for the Bluejays. They went scoreless for the first nine minutes of the second half, but they never stopped playing defense; the only basket during that stretch was a runner from Marli Hilton; that meant the Bluejays were still in it for the final stretch.
But then Sasha Deardorff suddenly found the range with a medium range jumper with 2:52 left in the game after a pass from Hadley DeFreece to put Northeast right back in the game down 13-12. Neither team could take care of the ball against the other team’s stingy defense, but finally, Lindsey Jackson got a steal to get Northeast the ball back with 1:01 left. Sasha Deardorff then hit Skyler Florea inside, the lid came off the basket, and Northeast was up 14-13 with 52 seconds left.
Both sides exchanged turnovers before Brea Jenson missed a shot with 28 seconds left that would have put Stanberry back in front, and a tieup gave the ball back to the blue shirts. Northeast ran the clock down to 14.6 seconds before Stanberry could foul Skyler Florea and put her on the line. Florea was clutch again, hitting both free throws to make it 16-13.
But there was still some excitement as Lindsey Hailey hit one out of two with 8.7 seconds to make it 16-14. The second shot missed, and Northeast grabbed the defensive board, only to lose it out of bounds with 4.8 seconds left to give Stanberry another chance. Hailey missed a good look at a runner at the buzzer, and Northeast came away with the win.
Skyler Florea had 10 points, Sasha Deardorff 4, and Makenzie Pride 2.
Hadley DeFreece, Skyler Florea, and Lindsey Jackson had 1 block.
Skyler Florea had 11 boards for the Bluejays. Hadley DeFreece had 7, Makenzie Pride 4, Sasha Deardorff, Gracie Kohlleppel, and Lindsey Jackson 3 each, and Cora Munns 2.
Sasha Deardorff had 3 assists and Hadley DeFreece 2.
Hadley DeFreece had 6 tips. Skyler Florea had 5, Sasha Deardorff 2, and Cora Munns and Mylee Wilmes 1.
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