North Harrison’s girls started off with a brutal schedule, with early games against North Nodaway, Braymer, Princeton, and Stanberry in the first half of the season. They lost 49-23 to Gilman City in the Gallatin Tournament. They were searching for their first win of the year until the Trenton Holiday Classic, in which they made a lot of mistakes, but finally came away with their first win of the year, a 30-28 win over Hale.
Going into a new year, North Harrison had to play against the Hawks again, the team which had beaten them so badly in the Gallatin Tournament. But all of a sudden, like a light switch flipped on, a totally different team took the floor and they turned the tables on them, getting the 39-26 win over the Hawks Monday.
This group had pulled off a similar turnaround four years ago, when they were in junior high. They lost their first game 33-6, dropped their first three games, but then Camden Castleberry’s halftime buzzer-beating three turned the whole season around against Worth County. They won that game and the next, over East Harrison, despite Jayliegh Robins crashing into the bulletin board while going after a loose ball and falling on her back. She lay stunned for a few minutes before bouncing up like nothing had happened and running off the floor under her own power before returning for the second quarter. North Harrison won that game and proceeded to win 10 out of their next 13 to go 10-6 that year.
Maybe Monday’s win will be the spark that North Harrison needed this year. It started off with Halle Morgan, one of the shortest players on the team, wreaking havoc on the offensive glass, sneaking in and grabbing some offensive boards when nobody was paying attention, and getting several more tieups. While she didn’t lead the scoring Monday, her effort set the tone for everyone else. North Harrison got the ball twice into Jayliegh Robins in the high post, and Robins hit Morgan for two on another occasion early. Gilman City countered with Jolee Ward to keep it at 6-6, but that opened everything up for Camden Castleberry, who hit a 3-pointer on the right wing and added a baseline drive to make it 11-6 after one. Camden struck again at the start of the second to make it 14-6.
Morgan picked up her second and third fouls, but North Harrison stayed strong, getting 10 straight stops over a six minute span before Ward’s free throws cut it to 16-9. But Trendi Johnson hit from the left wing and Jayliegh Robins scored from inside at the buzzer to make it 20-9 at the break.
Gilman got the ball into Laina Ward to start the third, but Jaci Davis answered with a 3-pointer and North Harrison got six straight stops as they built up their lead to 28-11. Gilman City tried to rally at the start of the fourth, coming to within 32-18, but then Camden Castleberry carried the team on her shoulders, scoring six in the period as North Harrison pulled away to 38-18 before they emptied their bench.
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