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By Jonathan Magnin
The Class 3A No. 2 Norwell Lady Knights were too much for their county rivals to handle Friday night, trumping Bluffton 86-29 at the Castle.
Norwell (2-0) hounded the Lady Tigers’ ball handlers all night, forcing 40 turnovers, many of which turned into points for the Lady Knights.
“Norwell does a tremendous job of putting pressure on the ball and making you make mistakes,” said Bluffton head coach Vicki Van Matre afterwards. “We have some inexperienced girls handling the ball and it’s just going to take us some time to get through something like that.”
On the other side of the ball, Norwell showed its team cohesiveness with an all-around effort. While 6-2 sophomore Jessica Rupright was a physical presence all night with 23 points and 10 rebounds, they also got some great production from juniors Alyssa Smith (12 points) and Caitlyn McGrew (10 points), as well as senior guard Jenelle Wilson (10 points).
“I get excited about the unselfishness of our team,” said Norwell head coach Eric Thornton. “We talked after the game about how great it is to see us get excited for the success of each other and that’s just the type of team we have.”
“I think it was awesome how everyone stepped up and played their roles,” said Wilson afterwards. “We get excited for each other and are very unselfish. We just played awesome as a group tonight.”
Despite the final score, Bluffton kept it close in the early going, as Kara Fiechter and Felicia Prible hit consecutive three-pointers, followed by a Leslie Peeper lay-up to take an 8-7 lead midway through the first quarter.
It didn’t last long, as Norwell ended the first quarter on a 13-0 run to take a 20-8 lead after one quarter of play. The Knights continued to build on that lead, outscoring Bluffton 22-5 in the second quarter for a 42-13 half-time lead.
“It was nice to come out strong and get some confidence like we did,” said Van Matre. “But then we started turning the ball over and they were able to convert those turnovers into points.”
The second half didn’t get much better for the Tigers, as Norwell outscored the Tigers 25-5 in the third quarter and, with the starters sitting out the entire fourth quarter, the bench kept things going with a 19-11 fourth quarter.
For the game, the Knights shot 46 percent from the field (34-74), while holding Bluffton to 25 percent on 8-32 shooting.
Bluffton was led in scoring by sophomore Felicia Prible with eight points, while junior Kara Fiechter added seven for the Lady Tigers.
The Norwell junior varsity team was also victorious 55-17. Jami Reinhard and Paige Frisch led the Knights with 22 points each. Carlee Harnish added four points, Sophie Gerber three, and Kelsey Kintz two points. Bluffton was led by Leslie Peeper with six points. Danielle Brown, Connelly Mettler, Darcie Johnson, Shayna LaVine, and Sheena Steffen all had two points each, while Gina Eisenhut tallied one point.
The Norwell freshman girls lost to Huntington North 34-18 (Bluffton does not field a freshman team). The Lady Knights were led in scoring by Mariah Hoger with seven points, while Jalyn Kremer added four points. Megan Evans scored three points, and Chey Harris and Courtney Rohr added two points.
Norwell will take it’s unbeaten record on the road next week against a tough Fort Wayne Concordia Lutheran team on Tuesday night, while Bluffton will be at home against Allen County Athletic Conference foe South Adams Friday night.
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