DOVER — North Montgomery girls basketball came into the 15th annual Sugar Creek Classic on a three-game winning streak and looked to carry that momentum into Friday night as they took on host Western Boone.
In the first half the Chargers were holding serve and took a 19-9 advantage into the locker room. However in the second half, Western Boone ran away with the game outscoring North Montgomery 33-9 to win by a 42-28 final score.
“In the second half they (Western Boone) took control and said this our game,” North Montgomery coach Ryan Nuppnau said. “We bowed down to that and let them push us around and allowed them to get anything they wanted. We weren’t willing to block out or take care of the ball and Western Boone simply wanted it more than we did.”
North Montgomery (3-3 1-0 SAC) took advantage of foul trouble for the Stars. Katie Rice led the Chargers with 14 points and 12 rebounds in the loss.
“We still had some jitters I think with it being just our second game of the season,” Stars coach Hannah Kelly said. “We talked about how we were a better team than what we were showing and they had confidence in themselves that we could be better and needed to show it.”
Junior Emmy Roys dominated the last two quarters for Western Boone (2-0). She scored all ten of her points and grabbed 12 of her 19 rebounds in the third and fourth quarters. Carlie Pennington was the leading scorer for the Stars with 13 points and Katheryn Rutherford added in nine.
With the win the Stars move on to take on Crawfordsville who defeated Southmont in the other semi-final matchup, Saturday night in the championship game. Western Boone will be looking for its 13th Sugar Creek Classic title in 15 tries.
“Crawfordsville came out and looked pretty impressive.” Kelly said of the Stars opponent. We have to be able to match their aggressiveness at the beginning of the game. Our girls are excited and will be ready to play for a championship.”
The Chargers will take on Southmont in the consolation game at 6 p.m. and Nuppnau knows his girls have a chance to back against a county rival.
“It’ll come down to wants it more tomorrow,” he said. “South is going to come hungry against us. The question becomes can we answer that and elevate and be more confident to attack the basket.”
