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.
Despite the 38-31 loss, North Montgomery girls’ basketball wasn’t going to go out without a fight against Rossville. A Madison Banta putback at the third quarter buzzer trimmed the Hornet lead to just 26-22 but Rossville controlled much of the final eight minutes as the Chargers couldn’t muster enough for a fourth quarter rally.
Despite the loss Charger coach Ryan Nuppnau was pleased with his team’s effort for the majority of the game.
“I was very pleased with our defense and how played their (Rossville) players to their weakness,” he said. “They executed that very well specially to begin the game where they really didn’t know what to do offensively. Everyone that came in off the bench and immediately knew what they needed to. Their half-court trap gave us problems offensively with how long they are, and you add that we’re not the biggest team out there either. We made an adjustment at half and overall, I was happy with how we executed.”
The story of the game for the Chargers offensively was the play of senior Madison Banta who scored a career-high 16 points on 7-11 from the field. Banta, who is still working her way back from an ankle injury, gave the Chargers the lift they needed.
“It was nice to see her play like that because we always knew that she could shoot,” Nuppnau said of his senior big. “It’s been something that we’ve been harping on our other players that once that defense collapse they need to find a space to where they can be found and be ready to shoot it. She took full advantage full advantage tonight.”
Piper Ramey added nine points and added 14 rebounds in the loss. Macee Norman and Jadelyn Phillips each added three.
Ava Burkle led the Hornets with 13 points in the win. Tori Skiles added six, Avery Layton and Addi Gorbett five, Avery Gorbett four, and Corryn Geheb one.
The win for the Hornets improves their record to 6-7 on the season and sends them into the winners’ bracket on Wednesday where they will take on Tri-County.
The loss for the Chargers sees their record fall to 2-12 on the year and they now move into the losers’ bracket on Wednesday at Frankfort where they will take on North Newton at 6 pm.
