ROSSVILLE – While Christmas break is officially here for all three Montgomery County schools, that doesn’t mean the action the court has stopped. Both North Montgomery girls and boys’ basketball teams made the trip to Rossville on Monday for the opening round of the Delphi Kitchen Classic as they took on the Hornets. The Charger girls got things going and fell to the Hornets 38-31 while the boys took home their second straight win in a 55-40 victory.
North Montgomery boys’ basketball looks as if they’ve found their shooting touch. In their 55-40 win over Rossville, the Chargers drained eight threes and went 8-15 from behind the arc.
The game began with the Chargers coming out of the gates firing on all cylinders as they took a 21-12 lead after the opening eight minutes. Entering halftime North was able to extend its lead to 30-18. The home Hornets though weren’t going away quietly as the Chargers found themselves up only 38-32 entering the fourth. That’s when North put the nail in the coffin thanks to timely free-throws and their continued success from downtown.
“We’ve been getting great shots and great looks against every team we’ve played, but they just haven’t been falling until these last two games,” North Montgomery coach Chad Arnold said. “But the biggest thing that’s led us to these last two wins. We guarded well again and had not turning the ball over (9 turnovers). We do need to do a better job of rebounding, but when you guard, take care of the ball, and rebound well, that’s a good recipe to win a lot of basketball game.”
Jarrod Kirsch had his breakout game of the year for North Montgomery in the win. The sharpshooting junior drilled five threes and tied teammate Kelby Harwood as they duo led all scorers with 17 points each. Drew Norman added eight, Colton Zachary seven, Nate McCoy four and Ross Dyson two.
Arnold complimented Kirsch who he knows has a ton of confidence in himself even if his shots aren’t falling.
“We’re never worried about Jarrod,” Arnold said of his junior. “He doesn’t give enough credit for what he does on the defensive end. We going to continue to need that because we’re a way better team when we have guys like him and Colton hitting shots.”
Rossville was led by Matthew Ford’s 11 points and had Austin Bray add 10. Luke Royer added seven with Kaden Del Real scoring five. Caden Wilson added three and both Kahne Gardner and Gabe Freeman scored two.
Rossville falls to 4-5 with the loss and they will travel to Frankfort on Wednesday to take on Tri-County in the loser’s bracket.
The Chargers notch their second straight win and improve to 3-4 on the season. They move on into the winners’ bracket at Delphi on Wednesday and where they will square off against North Newton.
“We came here to win this whole tournament,” Arnold said. “We’ve just got to keep guarding like we have. The good old saying is defense wins championships.”
