By RICK SPRUNGER
DECATUR — Norwell had a big win Saturday night.
Norwell’s Lady Knights won the long-awaited, highly-anticipated showdown with Bellmont Saturday night by a narrow 46-43 score.
Two free throws by Kennedy Fuelling with 0:01.2 remaining sealed the deal for the Knights, who improved to 16-3 with the win.
Bellmont dropped to 14-4 with the loss.
It was only appropriate that Fuelling would be the one to clinch the victory.
She led all scorers with 25 points and was the one who ran down a long inbounds pass against fullcourt pressure and saved it from going out of bounds with 0:06 to play and her team leading by just one point.
Although the game had no real bearing on the Northeast 8 Conference championship, and the Knights are likely going to have to beat the Braves again to win the sectional, Norwell coach, Eric Thornton insisted that this was a big win.
“It means something to us,” said Thornton, remembering last year’s sectional upset loss to this same team. “When a team knocks you out, that sticks with you. Bellmont is a good team, and they are really playing at the top of their game right now. They very nearly beat Columbia City last week, and they were ahead of (Fort Wayne) Northrop going into the fourth quarter (two nights earlier). I was just hoping that we could compete.”
They did it on the strength of Fuelling, who hit nine of 16 shots from the field and a pair of free throws.
Included in her night’s work were five three-pointers, most of them from a good three to five feet behind the arc.
But it wasn’t just Fuelling.
Makenzie Fuess, suffering through one of the worst shooting nights of her career and scoring just five points on 1-for-14 shooting from the field, came through big on defense with seven steals.
And Dekota Hubble, banging with 5-11 Bellmont bruiser Hailey Cole, nonetheless scored 10 points on 5-for-8 shooting and grabbed 11 rebounds herself, putting two of them back on the offensive end.
The game turned early in the third quarter.
Bellmont led throughout the first half, though never by more than four points, and took a 19-16 advantage into the dressing room.
But after both teams came up empty on their first two possessions of the second half, Fuelling drilled a stop-and-pop 10-footer from the left baseline, Hubble put back a missed Fuess three-pointer and Fuelling herself rifled a 22-foot three pointer to slingshot Norwell in front, 23-19.
Sydney Keane, who led Bellmont with 21 points, connected from the lane to stem the tide.
But Fuelling picked Keane’s pocket in the backcourt and nailed a three, and Fuess stole the ball from Arabelle Laurent and added two free throws for a 27-21 lead.
That enabled Norwell to play from in front the rest of the night.
The lead actually reached eight points on four occasions, the last at 38-30 on a rebound bucket by Fuelling with 3:51 left in the game.
It was still 42-36 when Bellmont made its last charge, scoring five quick points after a series of three offensive rebounds.
Rachel Bleke hit the first of two free throws after getting the first, Cole was hammered after the second and dropped in two more, and finally, there was a wide-open Cole fielding a Keane airball from the arc and putting in a pretty reverse layup that cut the margin to 42-41 with 0:47 left.
Annabelle Johnson streaked down the lane to take an inbounds pass from Fuelling under the basket and lay it in at the 0:23 mark, and Keane’s two free throws with 0:06 to play made it 44-43 and set up the final sequence.
Johnson fired a one-hand pass the length of the floor and nearly out of the range of Fuelling, who managed to run it down near the baseline.
Fuelling brought it back out top while Bellmont inexplicably backed off her and defaulted into its 2-3 zone while five precious seconds ticked off the clock.
Keane, finally remembering the game situation, came out and fouled her at 0:01.2, and the rest has been told.
Bellmont coach Jonathon Fuelling was disappointed with the loss and with his team’s play.
“We knew this three-game stretch would be difficult,” he said after the game. “Was it a Northrop hangover? I don’t know. But we didn’t shoot well, we didn’t finish at the basket well, and we had some uncharacteristic turnovers. Our defensive pressure caused some turnovers, but we didn’t capitalize.”
Indeed, his team was just 14-for-50 from the field for an ice-cold .280 percentage.
But it did win the battle of the boards by a decisive 41-31 margin, with Cole picking off 20 by herself.
In the end, nothing was really decided.
Next time, though, it should be for all the marbles in the sectional.
Norwell won the junior varsity contest by a 46-16 score.
The Knights were led by Addison Norris with 11 points and Ashley Waldman with 10.
Larkin Smith, Madyson Sonnigsen, and Ayla Nern each added seven, and Jada Dale and Mekynzi Beck scored two points apiece.
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NORWELL 46, BELLMONT 43
at Bellmont High School
NORWELL (16-3, 4-1 NE8): Dekota Hubble 5-8 0-0 10, Kennedy Fuelling 9-16 2-2 25, Lillian Norris 0-2 0-0 0, Annabelle Johnson 2-2 0-0 4, Makenzie Fuess 1-14 2-7 5, Vanessa Rosswurm 1-2 0-0 2, Haley Green 0-1 0-0 0, Ryland Graft 0-1 0-0 0. TOTAL: 18-46 4-9 46.
BELLMONT (14-4, 3-2 NE8): Ellen Scott 0-2 0-2 0, Sydney Keane 8-22 5-6 21, Emily Bleke 3-4 1-2 8, Rachel Bleke 1-2 2-4 4, Hailey Cole 2-13 4-6 8, Tessa Spiegel 0-6 2-3 2, Arabelle Laurent 0-1 0-0 0. TOTAL: 14-50 14-23 43.
Norwell 4 12 14 16 — 46
Bellmont 8 11 6 18 — 43
Three-point shooting: Norwell 6-22 (Fuelling 5-11, Norris 0-2, Fuess 1-9), Bellmont 1-13 (Scott 0-1, Keane 0-4, E. Bleke 1-1, Cole 0-3, Spiegel 0-3, Laurent 0-1).
Rebounds: Norwell 31 (Hubble 11, Fuelling 5), Bellmont 41 (Cole 20, E. Bleke 8). Turnovers: Norwell 15, Bellmont 15. Personal fouls: Norwell 18, Bellmont 11. Fouled Out: None. Technical fouls: None.
Junior Varsity: Norwell 46, Bellmont 16.
