By RICK SPRUNGER
GAS CITY – It wasn’t as easy as the final score makes it look.
But Norwell brushed aside Fort Wayne Luers, 62-32, in opening round play of Class 3A Sectional 23 girls basketball at Mississinewa Friday night.
The Knights (19-4) advanced to Saturday’s semifinals against Bellmont (15-8), a 53-36 winner over Mississinewa in the other semifinal.
Norwell’s big push against Luers came in the game’s final nine minutes during which time the Knights outscored the Summit City squad, 27-6, to put a relatively close game on ice.
“For about the last quarter and a half, we played about as well as we can play,” said Norwell coach Eric Thornton after the game.
Over those last nine minutes, Norwell hit seven of nine shots from the field – four of them 3-pointers – and forced nine turnovers while cruising right past the increasingly frustrated Luers team.
But for most of the game, Norwell couldn’t quite get in sync on offense and struggled to achieve separation from a team that it had beaten, 62-39, earlier in the season.
“Their adjustments from the first game were effective,” said Thornton later. “The first time, they played a 2-3 zone.
“But this time, they played a 3-2 and spread it out to take away our shooting from the wings.”
Norwell’s 3-point game was working okay as the Knights were 12-for-23 for 52.2 percent for the game.
But they weren’t hitting from much of anywhere else, managing just 8-for-25 for 32 percent from 2-point range.
Defense was keeping them in it, however.
“That was impressive; that was tournament basketball,” said Thornton of his team’s defense.
Norwell forced 19 turnovers and limited Luers to just 21.7 percent shooting from the floor (10-for-46).
“Our defense played great when the offense wasn’t great,” he added.
Luers never led in the contest, but neither did it let Norwell get out of its sight for most of the game.
Norwell held leads of just 10-8 after a quarter and 27-20 at halftime. And then both teams were scoreless for the first four-plus minutes of the third quarter.
Norwell missed its first five shots of the second half, all of them 3-point attempts.
“We called a timeout at about the four-minute mark,” said Thornton. “We had wasted some possessions, and we just needed to be more patient.
“We wanted to get it up to 12 by the end of the quarter.”
They did that on a 15-footer by Makenzie Fuess with 40 seconds left and a free throw by Haley Green with no time left on the clock after a steal.
That moved the margin from 35-26 to 38-26.
And then in the fourth quarter, Norwell was off to the races.
A Fuess free throw and back-to-back 3-pointers by Emily Todd upped the count to 45-29.
Addie Shank hit a pair of free throws for Luers.
But another free throw and a shot underneath by Fuess started a sequence that removed any remaining doubt.
Her shot from under the bucket made it 48-31, and a frustrated Anna Parent of Luers lost her cool and was almost immediately hit with a technical foul.
Mackinzie Toliver converted both free throws, and Fuess nailed a 3-pointer on the ensuing possession.
A Luers inbounds pass from the frontcout that didn’t seem to have an intended receiver was run down by Fuess in the backcourt, and she added two more free throws.
Shank was whistled for a charge on Luers’ next possession, and it was Fuess again from the right elbow, then a 3-pointer by Kennedy Fuelling.
It all added up to a 16-0 run over a three-and-a-half minute stretch and a sudden 30-point lead.
Fuess led all scorers with 19 points off the bench for Norwell.
Todd added 17 and Fuelling with both of them hitting five 3-pointers.
Parent scored 17 points for Luers but didn’t get much help from her teammates.
Luers closed the book on a 12-11 campaign.
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NORWELL 62, FORT WAYNE LUERS 32
At Mississinewa High School
NORWELL (19-4): Emily Todd 6-12 0-0 17, Kennedy Fuelling 5-11 0-1 15, Mackinzie Toliver 1-4 2-2 5, Annabelle Johnson 0-3 3-6 3, Skyla Tomasek 1-4 0-0 2, Makenzie Fuess 7-13 4-6 19, Haley Green 0-1 1-2 1, Madyson Sonnigsen 0-0 0-0 0, Ryland Graft 0-0 0-0 0, Ali Riley 0-0 0-0 0, Dekota Hubble 0-0 0-0 0. TOTAL: 20-48 10-17 62.
BISHOP LUERS (12-11). Maggie Parent 0-4 0-0 0, Celia Eyrich 0-4 0-0 0, Anna Parent 6-14 5-8 17, Reese Rhodehamel 3-14 0-2 8, Addie Shank 1-6 4-6 6, Anna Zimmermann 0-2 0-0 0, Jada Bright 0-0 0-0 0, Lillian Worman 0-0 1-2 1, Katherine Allen 0-1 0-0 0, Keaghan Gatchell 0-0 0-0 0, Mary Bergeron 0-1 0-0 0. TOTAL: 10-46 10-18 32.
Norwell 10 17 11 24 –– 62
Bishop Luers 8 12 6 6 –– 32
Three-point goals: Norwell 12-23 (Todd 5-8, Fuelling 5-8, Toliver 1-4, Fuess 1-3), Luers 2-15 (M. Parent 0-3, Eyrich 0-2, A. Parent 0-1, Rhodehamel 2-8, Allen 0-1). Rebounds: Norwell 33 (Tomasek 5), Luers 37 (Shank 12, Rhodehamel 6, A. Parent 5, Zimmermann 5). Turnovers: Norwell 9, Luers 19. Fouls: Norwell 15, Luers 16. Fouled Out: Shank. Technicals: A. Parent.
