RENSSELAER — North Montgomery girls basketball players have no reason to hang their heads.
The Chargers may have suffered a 67-26 to No. 2 ranked Rensselaer Central in the IHSAA Class 2A Sectional No. 37 championship on Saturday night — but they end the season with their most wins since 2013 — posting a 16-10 record.
It’s also only the second time since that 2013 season that North Montgomery had advanced to the sectional final.
The Bombers pushed their season record to 23-2 and won their first sectional title since 2013 by using their length and quickness to go on a 13-0 first quarter run and 10-0 second quarter run to build a 39-16 halftime lead over the Chargers.
“They are a really good team and really showed how good they are,” North Montgomery coach Ryan Nuppnau said. “Their quickness and long length, but our girls never backed down from them. The one thing that really hurt us was offensive rebounding.”
Rensselaer Central had offensive rebounds and out-rebounded North Montgomery 27-14 for the game.
Nuppnau was right though. The Chargers started the game strong — scoring three quick baskets to take a 6-5 lead.
“I can’t tell you how proud I am of the girls,” Nuppnau said. “They came out of the gates right away and they weren’t scared, they gave us everything they had and we were able to hold on there halfway through the quarter.”
Junior Macee Norman led the strong start by scoring all of her team-high 12 points in the first half. Sophomore Madysen Holt added nine points on three made 3-pointers.
“She (Holt) showed that she by far has the best handles out there of anybody on both teams and knocked down some big threes for us and Macee got off to a great start, attacking the basket,” Nuppnau said.
Piper Ramey was the only other Charger to score with five points. The senior capped her four-year varsity career by joining the 1,000-point club this season.
“Piper has been out there since her freshman year, and she’s a pretty special player,” Nuppnau said. “She’s one of those kids that is team oriented. It took us forever her freshman and sophomore year to get her to score. She always wanted to do what was best for the team, and never really cared about herself, but she’s the type of person you could always count on.”
Also graduating will be Krestyn Bradford and Blair Nichols.
“They’re really a special group,” Nuppnau said about the seniors. “Blair, it’s been tough for her, but she’s taken it in full stride and she’s had a great attitude. Krestyn really blossomed for us this year. I honestly didn’t know where she was going to fit in coming into the season, but she found her stride early on as a big for us down low. She’s the smartest basketball player out there. She knows where to go and what to do.”
