By RICK SPRUNGER
CONVERSE — If you missed the first four minutes, you may as well not have bothered to come.
That was all Norwell needed to assert absolute dominance in a 63-31 win over a young, badly overmatched, and visibly intimidated Oak Hill team Saturday night.
“That was a fun start,” said Norwell coach Eric Thornton about his team’s 21-0 breakaway out of the gate.
It was mostly about the Norwell defense in that first period.
Oak Hill missed two shots on its first possession and then didn’t shoot again for quite a while.
The Golden Eagles turned the ball over on 10 straight possessions, seven of them on Norwell steals and one on a 10-second violation as Oak Hill, with two freshmen and a sophomore in the starting lineup, all had eyes as big as saucers in the face of Norwell’s vicious 1-3-1 trap.
Oak Hill didn’t score until the 1:05 mark of the first quarter, and even then they needed unguarded free throws to do it.
They finally got its first field goal after six straight misses on a three-pointer just ahead of the buzzer.
Norwell, meanwhile, was hitting on 8-of-15 first-quarter shots, most of them layups.
A steal and easy bunny by Lillian Norris with 2:34 left in the first period gave the Knights that early 21-0 bulge.
Another 23-2 Norwell burst between the 4:18 mark of the third quarter and the 4:26 mark of the fourth kicked the spread out from 40-22 to 63-24.
A Makenzie Fuess three-pointer with 6:32 remaining made it 59-24 and started a running clock.
“Those two runs were the ballgame,” said Thornton.
Although Norwell’s defense was outstanding, the offense sputtered at times.
The Knights shot a decent but not stellar 21-for-51 (.412) from the field.
“I think at times we were trying to play too fast,” said Thornton later. “We told them at halftime that they needed to play deeper into the possession, maybe drive the ball a little more and play inside-out, instead of taking the quick shot.”
Thornton was nonetheless pleased with his team’s floor game as his team committed just nine turnovers.
“We’ve been under 10 in most of our games,” he observed. “We’ve done a really good job of taking care of the basketball.”
Kennedy Fuelling led Norwell with 22 points on 8-for-18 shooting and four three-pointers despite sitting out for most of the fourth quarter.
She also had seven steals.
Fuess joined Fuelling in double figures with 13 points while Vanessa Rosswurm just missed twin digits with nine.
Oak Hill, which had more turnovers (33) than shots (32) or points (31) was led by Landi Hardman, a freshman, with 12 points.
Norwell, now 4-2 on the season, will travel to Fort Wayne Concordia on Tuesday night and then will return to the Castle for a Saturday afternoon game against Angola.
Norwell also won the junior varsity contest, 47-6, after leading 42-2 after three quarters.
Ashley Waldman scored 16 points and Macie Saalfrank 14 to lead the Knights in scoring. Larkin Smith added seven points for the Knights.
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NORWELL 63, OAK HILL 31
at Oak Hill
NORWELL (4-2): Dekota Hubble 2-3 2-4 6, Kennedy Fuelling 8-18 2-2 22, Annabelle Johnson 1-1 0-0 3, Makenzie Fuess 3-8 5-7 13, Vaness Rosswurm 3-7 2-5 9, Lillian Norris 1-3 0-0 2, Haley Green 1-1 0-0 2, Ryland Graft 0-3 0-0 0, Addison Norris 0-4 0-0 0, Ali Riley 2-3 0-0 6. TOTAL: 21-51 11-20 63.
OAK HILL (3-2): Lydia Trexler 0-2 0-0 0, Liz Godfrey 3-8 0-0 7, Erika Newhouse 1-3 1-2 3, Landri Hardman 5-6 2-3 12, Alivia Shaw 1-8 0-0 3, Alexa Myers 2-3 0-0 4, Morgan Cates 1-2 0-0 2, Ruth Tripp 0-0 0-0 0. TOTAL: 13-32 3-5 31.
Norwell 21 14 18 10 — 63
Oak Hill 5 8 11 7 — 31
Three-point shooting: Norwell 10-28 (Fuelling 4-10, Johnson 1-1, Fuess 2-5, Rosswurm 1-4, Graft 0-3, A. Norris 0-2, Riley 2-3), Oak Hill 2-8 (Godfrey 1-4, Newhouse 0-1, Shaw 1-2, Myers 0-1). Rebounds: Norwell 23, Oak Hill 28 (Myers 5, Cates 5). Turnovers: Norwell 9, Oak Hill 33. Personal fouls: Norwell 12, Oak Hill 15. Fouled Out: Hardman. Technical fouls: None.
Junior Varsity: Norwell 47, Oak Hill 6.
