DELPHI — After a successful Monday night which saw both North Montgomery basketball teams win their opening round games of the Delphi Kitchen Classic, Wednesday was a different story for both teams in the semi-finals. The girls got things going against Winamac and were tied at halftime at 28-28 but the third quarter doomed the Chargers and they fell by a final score of 65-48. In the boys game the Chargers had the very tall task of containing the state’s fourth leading scorer when they took on North Newton and 6’5 Evan Gagnon. North kept the game close for the first half and trailed 30-24 but much like the girls, the second half proved to be a different story. North Newton went on to win 59-37 as now both Charger teams will play for third place on Saturday.
Third quarter dooms Lady Chargers
Winamac began the third quarter against the Lady Chargers scoring the first 12 points and capitalizing off of numerous North turnovers. The Chargers wouldn’t score their first points until the 3:36 mark of the third and after that score just two more the rest of the quarter the Warriors out-scored the Chargers 17-4. The final quarter North did their best to keep pace but the damage had already been done.
“They (Winamac) came out of halftime and had a different look to their press and we just couldn’t handle it,” Charger coach Ryan Nuppnau said. “We lost that quarter by 13 points and that was the difference. You take that away and we played pretty even with them in the fourth and could’ve done things a little differently. We weren’t able to hit the shots we were able to in the first half.”
A bright spot in the loss for the Chargers was the play of sophomore Macee Norman who came out red hot from three in the first half. Norman scored 16 of the 28 Charger points in the first 16 minutes and ended the game scoring a game-high 23 points. The 23 is one off Norman’s career-high of 24 which she scored a season ago as a freshman.
“I was very pleased with how Macee took full advantage of our shoot around here on Tuesday,” Nuppnau said. “As a team we didn’t shoot it well on Monday and we mentioned to the girls how the law of averages always sways back in their favor eventually. Macee shot it really well and kept us in the game. I really don’t think Winamac expected Macee to go off like that knocking down four threes in the first half. She played as well as she could’ve and that was very good to see from a sophomore who’s just going to get better.”
For the game North Montgomery shot 15-44 (34%) from the floor and made 7-21 (33.3%) of their three-point attempts with Norman making five. They were 11-18 (61%) from the free-throw line and grabbed 33 rebounds. North ended the game turning the ball over 21 times. Along with Norman’s 23, Piper Ramey scored eight, Caelyn Carpenter seven, Blair Nichols and Mady Holt three, with Ella McManomy and Krestyn Bradford scoring two.
Winamac (10-5) came in with having their entire starting five average between seven and 10 points per game and that balance was on full display against the Chargers. Marissa Iverson scored 19 with Kandance Kroft scoring 17. Piper Link added 14 while Maggie Smith chipped in 13. Lily Bennett rounded out the scoring with two for the Warriors. Overall the Warriors shot 23-48 (48%) from the floor and made 6-23 (26%) of their three point attempts. From the free-throw line they shot 16-22 (73%) and grabbed 26 rebounds while committing just seven turnovers.
North Montgomery (7-8) will now conclude the Delphi Tournament on Saturday when the Chargers take on Pioneer (4-9) in the third place game which is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m.
Charger boys falter in second half
Much like in the girls game, the North Montgomery boys competed well in the first half in their semi-final game vs North Newton. After a quarter the Spartans led 19-14 and the Chargers kept pace heading into the locker room. A four-point third quarter and what ultimately was a 29-13 second half for the Spartans ended up being the Chargers downfall in the loss.
The 6’5 Gagnon who came into the game averaging 26.2 points per game scored 20 of the Spartans 30 in the first half. North didn’t get their first points of the second half until the two-minute mark then after that went nearly six minutes without another point as their offense couldn’t find any answers in the final 16 minutes.
“We missed a lot of shots again,” North coach Chad Arnold said. “We have to figure things out on the offensive end because four points in a quarter and only six with four minutes left in the game just isn’t going to win you ball games. I do want to tip my hat to Gagnon. He’s a really good player and we threw everything at him but he was able to rise up over us and knock down shots. I think Ross (Dyson) did all he could and made it hard on him. Ross was in every spot when he needed to be and then some of their other guys got going in the second half.”
Gagnon finished the game with 27 points on 9-14 from the floor and 5-9 from three. Along with him, the Spartans second-leading scorer Patrick Berry (14 ppg) got going in the second half and ended with 18. Jackson Alexander ended with five, Joe Stalewski four, Ben Livey three, and Adan Castleberry rounded out the scoring for the Spartans with two.
North Montgomery (4-4) was led by Colten Arnold’s nine points which included a half-court buzzer beater to end the first half. Jarrod Kirsch and Jack Warren both had seven, Noah Hopkins four, Cam Enlow and Ross Dyson three, and Caden Ireland and Camden Claycomb each had two.
North Newton (5-3) was 22-42 (52%) from the field and 8-21 (38%) from three. They shot 7-10 (70%) from the foul line and grabbed 31 rebounds while turning the ball over just nine times. The Chargers ended the game 15-37 (40%) from the floor and 6-13 (46%) from three, but just 1-6 from the foul line. They only had 16 rebounds for the game and turned the ball over 11 times.
The Charger boys, like the girls will play in the third place game on Saturday which will start around noon after the conclusion of the girls 3rd place game. North will take on Taylor (6-3).
