LINDEN — It was a good night for the North Montgomery Charger girls and boys basketball teams on Monday. The Chargers opened up the first round of the Indiana Kitchen Classic at home by hosting the Rossville Hornets in a double-header. The girls got things going and were able to hold off the Hornets down the stretch to secure a 31-27 win. The boys game proved much of the same as the girls with the Chargers holding on a to late lead and winning 38-33 as both teams now advance to the semi-finals on Wednesday.
Ramey takes Chargers to semi-finals
Piper Ramey is the catalyst for the Lady Chargers. Her teammates know that and of course the Charger coaching staff know it as well. On Monday against the Hornets Ramey scored 17 of the Chargers 31 points including going 7-8 from the foul line to help send the Chargers into the semi-finals. Along with Ramey’s performance, the Chargers also played great defense all night long and forced Rossville to shoot just 1-10 from three point range and turned them over 14 times.
“I think we putted around a little bit at the beginning but we still held a lead after the first quarter,” Charger coach Ryan Nuppnau said. “We did all the little things we needed to do to keep us in the game. Coach (Matt) Voorhees talked to our girls about how some of our previous teams haven’t been able to find ways to win these type of games, and this year and this team has been able to do that. We shot 5-8 from the line in the fourth quarter and kept our composure.”
North Montgomery (7-7) on the season has relied on its defense as they continue to develop on the offensive end. Through 14 games the Chargers are holding opponents to 38.3 points per game. The defense is something that once again stood out on Monday and Nuppnau is really liking how his girls are playing on that side of the ball.
“We played really good defense against them,” he said. “They have two girls with pretty good size and we got one of them in foul trouble (Ava Burkle). Girls like Blair (Nichols) and Ella (McManomy) did a great job late when we wanted to apply some pressure. We forced them to use their last timeout before they wanted to and then because of that were able to force a five second call. It was a really an awesome team win with all the girls playing their roles and stepping up when they were asked to.”
Along with Ramey’s 17, Macee Norman scored seven in the Charger win, Krestyn Bradford made the Chargers first three of the game with 20 seconds to go in the third quarter and ended with four. Caelyn Carpenter added two with Nichols scoring one. For the game the Chargers shot 9-38 (23%) from the floor and struggled especially from three going just 1-15 (7%). They did make up for it going 12-16 (75%) from the foul line while grabbing 34 rebounds.
For the game, the Hornets along with just 1-10 from three, shot 9-37 (24%) from the field and 8-12 (67%) from the foul line. They grabbed 28 rebounds. Ava Burkle (averaging 14 a game) led the Hornets with nine in the loss with Allie Elliot scoring eight, Addi Gorbett (9 a game) seven, and Caydence Robey rounded out the scoring with three.
Rossville will now play in the consolation bracket on Friday against North Newton while the Chargers advance to Friday’s semi-finals vs Winamac. Winamac took care of the Chargers 44-25 a season ago in this same tournament so the Chargers will have some redemption on their minds when the two teams square off on Wednesday night.
“We have an opportunity to play for a championship if we win on Wednesday,” Nuppnau said. “In order to win the war you’re going to have win some battles. We know we’re not going to win every battle and we didn’t tonight, but we won enough. Now it’s another battle with Winamac that had our number last year but these girls are ready for the opportunity that’s in front of them.”
Boys grind out win over Hornets
The Charger boys were short-handed on Monday and will be short-handed at least for the next few weeks. Junior Kelby Harwood suffered a thumb injury during Saturday’s win over Covington so against the Hornets the Charger offense looked a little different. While North only scored 38 points, their physical defense held firm most of the night and when the clock hid double zeros the effort was good enough for a Charger victory.
North led 31-28 entering the final quarter and both teams defenses buckled down. The biggest shot of the game came with 1:20 left off an out-of-bounds play where sharpshooting senior Jarrod Kirsch buried a corner three to give the Chargers a 36-33 lead. With 27.9 left after a North turnover, the Hornets had a chance to tie, but the Charger defense harassed the ball and Rossville had to call a timeout with 9.5 second left. A contested corner three fell short and Kirsch sealed the game with two made free-throws.
“It was tough tonight not having Kelby because he does a lot of things for us,” Charger coach Chad Arnold said. “I am proud of the guys who had to step up in his absence. Every single one of those guys were ready to play. Our rotations on defense were great and our effort on the ball was really good especially in the second half.”
Kirsch led the Chargers with 14 points in the win and Noah Hopkins added 12. Ross Dyson chipped in six while Cam Enlow, Jack Warren and Corbin Meadows all scored two. For the game North Montgomery (4-3) shot 15-38 (39%) from the floor and 3-14 (21%) from three. While the Chargers didn’t get to the line much, they made their attempts count going 5-6 from the line. They grabbed 27 rebounds and turned it over 10 times.
Rossville (4-5) was led by Jordan Skiles 10 points off the bench while Charlie Thompson scored eight. Brayden Thiele-Hahn added six, Caden Wilson five, and Brody Skinner four. From the floor the Hornets shot 12-37 (32%) with 20 of those shots coming from three where they only made 3-20 (15%). Rossville also shot just 6-12 (50%) from the foul line, grabbed 25 rebounds and turned it over 10 times.
“We ran a set for Jarrod and he slipped the screen and knocked down the biggest shot of the game,” Arnold said. “They got confused on it and two of their guys went with the screener and left him wide open. We face-guarded them after the timeout and they weren’t able to get into the stuff late. Hopefully we can keep growing from all these close games we’ve been in. We’ve had a chance to win every game but I love the fight that our guys show when they go out there. Ross Dyson did a heck of job on their freshman (Thiele-Hahn). He’s a really good player a Ross walled him up and didn’t let him get comfortable.”
The Chargers will also play on Wednesday night 20 minutes after the conclusion of the girls game. North Newton was able to edge out Winamac 42-39 so the Chargers and Spartans will meet up in the semi-finals. If either Charger team is able to win the championship games are slated for Saturday at 2 pm for the girls and 4 pm for the boys. If either team loses, the 3rd place games are also scheduled for Saturday with the girls being a 10 am and the boys being at noon.
The rest of the games will take place at Delphi High School.
