By RYAN WALKER
The Norwell boys’ basketball team breezed past Huntington North 57-32 in what was another banner-raising night at The Castle.
With Friday night’s win over the Vikings (7-12), the Knights (18-2) finished the conference play at a perfect 7-0 to win the Northeast 8 championship outright. This was just six days after the girls’ team won the sectional title on the same floor.
“Well, it was a goal of ours obviously early in the year at the beginning of the season,” head coach Mike McBride said after the game. “We knew going in it was going to be a seven-game grind, and that’s how we approached it, and our kids did a good time every night in the conference coming out, competing hard, playing together, and I’m just really proud of our guys to go back-to-back in the conference.”
Norwell came into the year as defending champs and had a goal to win the NE8 three out of the last four years. Just last week, the Knights could sniff a repeat after beating the now runner-up in the conference, Columbia City, by 30 points.
The team has seven seniors on the roster who have now been champs for over half of their high school careers. The senior class plays a crucial role on the team and eats up well over the majority of the minutes. It has a special bond that goes beyond basketball.
“We know each other great,” senior guard Luke McBride said. “We’re really close off the court and on the court as well, and just being out there with them, being able to win championships is just awesome, and I love those guys.”
“It’s a group of kids that they No. 1 they love to compete, and I think the second thing is that they just really like to play with each other, and when you watch them, they’re very unselfish, and they play together really well,” coach McBride echoed.
Huntington North could not get anything going whatsoever. The Vikings tried passing it around the arc, driving to the paint, and running around in an attempt to tire out the defense, but the Knights never gave in.
The 32 points Norwell allowed was the second lowest on the season (31 to Mississinewa back in late November). The Knights forced 19 turnovers, scoring 21 points off of them, and didn’t allow more than 10 in any quarter.
The Knights average 70 points per contest, but the low-scoring affair was attributed to the Vikings playing a patient offense and trying to figure out how to get through. Head coach Craig Teagle used a handful of timeouts throughout to inch toward the basket, but Norwell was always right there in the way.
Coach McBride mentioned that the team’s defensive intensity set the tone for his team early in the game and was a big contribution to the overall effort throughout the night.
Offensively, Norwell shot the ball well enough, shooting 41 percent from the floor and 34 percent from deep. Twenty-four of its total came from beyond the arc, with the help of Lleyton Bailey hitting three of them, and the duo of Jake Parker and McBride hit two each.
None, perhaps, were bigger than McBride’s first three at the 1:22 mark in the first quarter. With that three, his career point total broke the NE8 record mark for most points in a career, passing Columbia City’s Mitchell Wilson for the feat.
“Being a good scorer is something I strive to do well, and you know, Mitchell Wilson was a great player and a really good scorer, and it’s really a blessing to be able to do what I do,” Luke McBride said.
Wilson was at the top of the eight-year NE8 history and marked Wilson at 1,752 points, McBride now has 1,763. Wilson, now at Huntington University in the Crossroads League, was a former foe in the conference, and McBride, heading to Bethel University who is also in the Crossroads League, will meet up again in the near future.
McBride is now chase ing for Darrin Archbold, Norwell’s all-time leading scorer at 1,811. He will need to score 48 points to beat the record in the next three games, plus the post-season.
Norwell’s next game will be at Jay County starting at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 17.
The Knights won the junior varsity game 41-32. Adam McBride had a game-high 15 points, and Kaedyn Quintanilla and Owen Wallis scored 10 each.
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NORWELL 57, HUNTINGTON NORTH 32
At Norwell High School
HUNTINGTON NORTH 7-12 (3-4 NE8): Asher Chipchosky 3-5 1-1 7, Zach Nash 0-0 7, Aric Hosler 3-8 0-0 7, Tyler Carr 3-7 0-0 6, Ethan Zahn 1-1 0-0 3, Cole McCarver 1-2 0-0 2, Ethan Hubartt 0-0 0-0 0, Wesley Huff 0-3 0-0 0 Sam Double 0-2 0-0 0. TOTALS: 14-33 1-1 32
NORWELL 18-2 (7-0 NE8): Luke McBride 3-8 7-7 15, Lleyton Bailey 4-9 1-2 12, Jake Parker 4-9 1-2 11, Luke Graft 3-4 2-3 8, Brody Bolyn 2-3 0-0 4, Gavin Hoeppner 1-2 0-0 3, Ashton Federspiel 1-3 0-0 2, Cohen Bailey 0-4 2-2 2. TOTALS: 18-43 13-16 57.
H. North 6 8 8 10 — 32
Norwell 19 9 18 11 –– 57
Three-point FG: Huntington North 3-10 (Hosler 1-3, Nash 1-2, Zahn 1-1, Hubartt 0-1, Double 0-1, Huff 0-2), Norwell 8-23 (L. Bailey 3-8, McBride 2-5, Graft 2-5, Parker 2-5, Hoeppner 1-1, C. Bailey 0-3, Graft 0-1). Rebounds: Huntington North 15 (Double 4, Zahn 3, Hubartt 2, Hosler 2, Chipchosky 2, Carr 1), Norwell 23 (Federspiel 6, McBride 5, Bolyn 4, Graft 4, C. Bailey 2, Hoeppner 1, L. Bailey 1). Turnovers: Huntington North 19, Norwell 6. Fouls: Huntington North 9, Norwell 4. Fouled Out: None. Technicals: None.
