LINDEN — For three quarters on Tuesday night, the North Montgomery boys basketball team played even with West Lafayette. The Red Devils made the trip through the dense fog as the Chargers and the Red Devils were the only local teams playing. The visitors jumped out to a 14-2 lead early, but junior Kelby Harwood scored six straight points to make it 14-8 west side after one. In the second quarter is when the flood gates opened and the Chargers had no answer on defense. West Lafayette scored 28 point in the second stanza by going 11-16 from the field and 5-7 from three. North faced a 42-17 hold at intermission and couldn’t recover with West Lafayette defeating the Chargers 66-47.
“West Lafayette just has a ton of guys that a great shot makers,” North coach Chad Arnold said. “You can tell they spend time on their shots outside of basketball. It’s important to do that. That second quarter obviously killed us. Despite being down 25, I was proud of the fight in our guys in the second half. We kept battling and clawing when we could’ve hung our heads and gave in.”
That fight was well documented in the third quarter where North Montgomery (5-10) out-scored the Red Devils 16-7 and ultimately won the second half 30-24.
In the loss the Chargers were led by Harwood’s 24 points as he led all scorers. Noah Hopkins and Jarrod Kirsch each has seven with Corbin Meadows scoring three and Jack Warren two. From the field the Chargers shot 18-43 (41.9%) and 4-14 (28.6%) from three while going 7-12 (58.3%) from the foul line. They grabbed 21 rebounds and turned the ball over 11 times.
West Lafayette (10-6) had four players in double figures and was led by Drew Whitlock’s 15. 6’10 big man Kevo St. Hilaire and Benny Speaker each had 13 with Ben Werth scoring 12. Donovan Loudermill scored eight, Ashenafi Modesitt and Henry Umulis two with Jackson Fry rounding out the scoring with one. The Red Devils shot 23-45 (51.1%) from the field in the win and 8-17 (47.1%) from three. They made 12-18 (66.7%) of their foul shots while grabbing 30 rebounds and turning the ball over nine times.
“There were a few times where we showed great heart and that’s what I want to see from these guys,” Arnold added. “We started off trailing 14-2 and made it 14-8 . It’s about putting together a complete 32 minutes and competing for every minute while we’re out there. It starts in practice with us and that’s where we have to get better.”
The Chargers will now get ready for a Sugar Creek Classic re-match with the Western Boone Stars on Friday before taking on Attica on Saturday. The Chargers played one of their better games of the season in the consolation game of the Sugar Creek Classic with a 50-33 win over the Stars.
“Coach Oakley is going to have his guys ready and we know they’re going to bring it,” Arnold said. “We’re going to have to be ready from the opening tip and play a lot like how we played in this second half.”
The Chargers and Stars will get things going 20 mins after the conclusion of the girls game on Friday which is slated for a 6 p.m. tip
