DELPHI — North Montgomery girls basketball will go into the holiday season with momentum and their heads held high. Saturday the Chargers concluded play in the Indiana Kitchen Classic at Delphi playing in the third place game against Pioneer. The Chargers were able to come away with the 44-38 thanks in large part to sophomore Macee Norman. After scoring 23 points in Wednesday’s semi-final loss, Norman continued her great play and repeated that performance with another 23 -point game in which she also grabbed nine rebounds.
North Montgomery (8-8) used an 8-0 run going into halftime to take a 21-16 lead. They built a 27-17 lead mid-way through the third but the Pioneer cut the lead to 28-26 with 1:45 left in the third. That’s as close as they would get as the Chargers bent but didn’t break and held the lead for the entire final eight minutes knocking down some crucial foul shots along the way to secure the third place finish.
“I was very pleased with how we played in this tournament overall,” Charger coach Ryan Nuppnau said. “You can really tell we’re starting to grow in many different areas and different situations. It was one of those games where I wish we could have built the lead further but the girls did a great job of keeping their composure. They’ve played in games this year where they’ve had to hold a lead late in the game and today was no different. It was a game filled with ups and downs. It’s really neat to see these girls beginning to mature out there on the floor.”
Norman for her efforts in the overall tournament was named to the All-Tournament team. In the win Norman was also 11-14 from the foul line to help the Chargers salt away the win. With Piper Ramey drawing much of the attention, these past few games has really allowed Norman to show what she;s truly capable of as only in her second season.
“With them focusing on Piper it opens up more room for the rest of us to go to work,” Norman said. “I worked a lot this summer on improving not only on my game down low, but also on my jumper because I knew that we would need that this year. I took it upon myself to develop that part of my game and it’s really starting to pay off these last few games.”
Along with Norman’s 23 points, Ramey scored 11 and hauled in a monster total of 20 rebounds. Caelyn Carpenter added seven while Ella McManomy finished with three points. For the game the Chargers shot 12-28 (43%) from the field and 1-5 (20%) from three. As a team they shot a very impressive 19-26 (73%) from the foul line and grabbed 47 total rebounds. They did struggle in the turnover department, committing 27 give-aways.
“We looked to attack when they picked up their five foul about half-way through the fourth,” Nuppnau said. “That’s another level where these girls are beginning to understand the game and the situation. Piper got into foul trouble with her fourth foul in the third quarter and we were forced to play without her and really did well. Without her out there we could’ve folded, but gathered together and took care of business.”
Of course Nuppnau once again Nuppnau praised Norman for her continued great play as well.
“We know what Macee is capable of ,” he said. “We’ve talked a lot of about the idea of give and take and that teams are going to focus on Piper. Macee has been the beneficiary of that these last several games. What’s great now is now is teams are going to have to respect both Macee and Piper and that’s going to open things up for our other girls. We have other girls who can score too and now it’s about having them be in the right spots at the right time.”
Pioneer (4-10) was led in scoring by MaKenna Strycker’s 17 points with Mia McKaig adding nine, Jocelyn Kain six, Kynzie Hathaway four, and Lois Layer two. The Panthers shot 12-58 (21%) from the floor and 2-13 (15%) from three. They made 12-19 (63%) from the free-throw line, grabbed 27 rebounds and turned the ball over 10 times.
The Chargers will now enjoy the holiday break and be back in action with a very important Sagamore Conference and Montgomery County game on Jan. 4 in their first game back when they take on Southmont for the county title.
