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EspañolNAPPANEE — A second quarter 20-point lead followed up by a near 11-minute scoring drought is a funky mixture that NorthWood used to win its regular season finale.
Friday night inside the ‘Panther Pit,’ the NorthWood Panthers (13-11) got back into the win column against a feisty Elkhart (11-11) team that never quit despite being put into a large hole on the road early. With a 43-36 win, the hosts return to the win column and enter the postseason with momentum.
“I think one of the major improvements in our basketball team has been closing games down,” NorthWood head coach Aaron Wolfe said. “I think as you go back and you look at January until now, we’ve had a pretty high success rate closing games down in the last five minutes of the fourth quarter.”
When senior Collin Deatsman nailed a three-pointer on the wing to give NorthWood a 29-9 lead at the four-minute mark, all was thought to be well for the home crowd.
A 29-15 halftime lead was solid too.
But those four points scored before the break was the short end of what would end up being a 16-0 run across nearly 11 minutes by the visitors. When Samarcus Gipson nailed his second of two field goals in the third quarter, the NorthWood lead was just 29-25.
“I think the shots we made in the first half we did not make in the second.” Wolfe said. “I would have to go back and look on film. I was pretty happy with the threes we took. I thought our guys did a nice job. Give Elkhart credit, they defensive rebounded really well in the second half.”
NorthWood was able to manage a three-point spurt to close out the third quarter. Brogan Ferrell scored on second-chance possessions that began with Caleb Vincent misfiring on a three followed by Mason Pearson soaring for the rebound and feeding it to Ferrell underneath for the score.
Entering the final eight-minute period, the Panthers clung to a 32-25 lead.
“We just wanted to remind them of what they’ve done in the past and that they were capable and showed them exactly what we wanted to do with the basketball,” Wolfe said about what he told his team in the final quarter.
A steal by Gipson was finished with an impressive one-hand jam against Pearson, but the foul shot was missed. The third layup of the second half for Ferrell gave NorthWood a 37-30 cushion with under three minutes play, but Elkhart refused to go away.
A three-pointer by Bray Lee not only was just the third Lion to enter the scoring column, but the triple made it a 39-35 game in favor of the hosts.
Elkhart freshman standout Kaleb Anderson-Mitchell split a trip to the line to make it a 39-36 game with under a minute to play, but another display of excellent passing by the Panthers resulted in another wide-open shot underneath for Ferrell. His layup and two foul shots by Colin Edwards secured NorthWood a winning season.
“I think our guards have shown this year that they’ve improved playing against pressure,” Wolfe said of the second-half adjusted Lions. “Elkhart is one of those teams on our schedule that they can apply a quite a bit of pressure on the basketball.
“I think I told our basketball team that I thought we did a great job in the first half of being good receivers. I thought in the second half our guards did a really nice job of escaping pressure and we ended up with some really good shots down the stretch.”
Leading the scoring column for Elkhart was Anderson-Mitchell (22 points), Gipson (11) and Lee (3). The Lions shot 14-of-31 from the floor and 6-of-16 from deep. They made just two of six shots at the free throw line.
NorthWood was led by Ferrell (12 points), Deatsman (11 — all in the first half), Vincent (9), Edwards (6) and Pearson (5 points, 10 rebounds). The Panthers shot 15-of-32 from the floor and 5-of-15 from distance. They canned five of their first seven three-pointers before missing their final eight.
They were 8-of-11 at the line.
“I think every team’s got an identity and I think our identity this year has been that we’re going to play every possession and that usually they’re going to be closer contested games,” Wolfe said. “Our guys have shown great poise in those games. I think they fully understand that at the beginning of the game is probably not a great time to be ahead; we’re trying to be ahead at the end. They do a nice job right now of staying poised when other teams make runs.”
Since Elkhart consolidated, the Lions have not beaten the Panthers. NorthWood is now an unblemished 6-0 in the series.
NorthWood reenters the win column and heads into sectional week with some momentum. The Panthers have now won eight of their last nine games. NorthWood received a bye to open sectionals and will play the winner of Tuesday’s quarterfinal between Tippecanoe Valley and Wawasee on Friday at 7:30 p.m. at Columbia City. The Panthers defeated the Vikings 66-28 and the Warriors 32-30 in double overtime this season.
“I think it’s a new story,” Wolfe said of a potential rematch with Wawasee. “Obviously it’s a double overtime game the first time we played them and they’re a very, very capable basketball team. We have a tremendous amount of respect for their program and their players and their coaching staff. They do a really nice job.”
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PREP BOYS BASKETBALL
Elkhart – 9; 6; 10; 11 – 36
NorthWood – 17; 12; 3; 11 – 43
JV score: NorthWood def. Elkhart 57-45