By RICK SPRUNGER
Norwell’s girls came up big on defense against Bellmont Saturday night and as a result took a major step toward securing the Northeast 8 Conference championship.
The Knights crushed the Braves in a surprisingly one-sided 52-22 rout to improve to 16-4 in all games and a perfect 5-0 in conference play with games left against New Haven and East Noble.
Bellmont dropped to 12-6 overall and 3-2 in the loop.
“Our 1-3-1 was disruptive,” acknowledged Norwell coach Eric Thornton of his team’s sterling defensive effort. “Our kids made it hard for them to score.”
Hard to score, or do much of anything else.
Bellmont managed just 8-33 shooting from the field for a dismal .242 shooting percentage while committing a whopping 18 turnovers against Norwell pressure.
The Knights had hands seemingly everywhere. There were hands in faces, hands in passing lanes and hands slashing at the basketball.
Balls were being tipped, passes were being rushed, shots were being hurried and Bellmont’s eyes were getting wider and wider.
“They’re good,” said Bellmont coach Andy Heim. “They’re quick and athletic in that 1-3-1. It’s hard to simulate in practice. With that kind of pressure, it’s hard not to rush.”
A long stretch in the first half summed up Bellmont’s evening.
After a Hailey Cole bucket underneath cut an early Norwell lead to 14-7 with 2:33 left in the first period, Bellmont scored just four more points over the remaining 10.5 minutes of the first half, all of them on free throws.
The Braves were 0-for-11 from the field with six turnovers during that stetch.
That doesn’t even count the last 22 seconds of the first half when Bellmont frantically tried to get someone open and never got a shot off.
Offensively, though, it was a bit of a different story for Norwell.
Between the 3:00 mark in the first quarter and their first possession of the third, the Knights hit on just four of 19 shots for a paltry .211 percentage during that stretch.
At one point in the first half, they missed an uncharacteristic eight straight three-point attempts.
“After playing defense the way we did, it seemed like we could have been ahead by more than we were (23-11) at halftime,” Thornton said. “Of course, as poorly as we were shooting, it could have gone the other way, too. I was really proud of our ability to play that kind of defense when we weren’t scoring.”
Thornton thought the first couple of minutes of the third quarter were pivotal.
“We missed a shot, and they scored; and I was thinking, ‘Okay, here we go,’” he said of bracing himself for a Bellmont onslaught.
But it didn’t happen.
An unfazed Makenzie Fuess drilled a three from the left corner, and Vanessa Rosswurm stole the ball and converted a pair of free throws.
That steal marked the start of five turnovers in six Bellmont possessions, interrupted only by a single Belle Laurent free throw.
Meanwhile, Rosswurm hit a runner in the lane, Kennedy Fuelling converted a Fuess steal into a layup, and Fuess knocked down another three.
Suddenly, it was 35-14; and the game, for all intents and purposes, was over.
Bellmont never got closer than 17 points after that, and a 14-0 Norwell run in the fourth quarter widened the final margin.
Fuess led Norwell in scoring with 16 points, and Fuelling added 15, but right in the center of everything was Rosswurm.
She scored 12 points, grabbed 10, rebounds, dished out six assists, and added a couple of steals to her night’s work.
Rosswurm was the catalyst in a first-quarter spurt that shot her team off to the races.
She drove the lane to open the scoring, dished off a sweet pass to Dekota Hubble underneath midway through the quarter for a 9-2 advantage, and scored again herself to open up Norwell’s first nine-point lead at 14-5.
She also collared four rebounds in the quarter and eight in the first half.
“She did a tremendous job for us tonight,” praised her coach of her stellar effort on both ends of the floor. “She has really come a long way for us.”
Norwell won the reserve contest, 54-16. Macie Saalfrank scored 14 points to lead the Knights.
Ashley Waldman added nine, Haley Williamson and Savanna Simerman eight apiece, Larkin Smith seven, and Jada Dale and Isabella Swineford four each.
Norwell will be at New Haven to clinch at least a tie for the Northeast 8 Conference title.
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NORWELL 52, BELLMONT 22
At Norwell
BELLMONT (12-6, 3-2 NE8): Kate Kitson 1-5 0-0 2, Emily Bleke 3-8 0-0 7, Belle Laurent 0-4 1-2 1, Kamryn Jarvis 1-4 2-2 4, Hailey Cole 2-9 2-4 6, Gwen Laurent 0-0 0-0 0, Lanie French 1-3 0-2 2, Ella Franze 0-0 0-0 0. TOTAL: 8-33 5-10 22.
NORWELL (16-4, 5-0 NE8): Annabelle Johnson 0-2 0-0 0, Kennedy Fuelling 6-14 0-0 15, Makenzie Fuess 5-16 2-4 16, Vanessa Rosswurm 5-11 2-2 12, Dekota Hubble 2-3 0-0 4, Alivia Green 0-1 0-0 0, Addison Norris 1-1 0-0 3, Lillian Norris 0-1 0-0 0, Ryland Graft 0-0 0-0 0, Ali Riley 0-0 0-0 0, Jada Dale 0-0 0-0 0, Ashley Waldman 1-1 0-0 2, Larkin Smith 0-0 0-0 0. TOTAL: 20-50 4-6 52.
Bellmont 7 4 7 4 — 22
Norwell 14 9 15 14 — 52
Three-point shooting: Bellmont 1-12 (Kitson 0-3, Bleke 1-1, B. Laurent 0-2, Jarvis 0-1, Cole 0-3, French 0-2), Norwell 8-23 (Johnson 0-2, Fuelling 3-8, Fuess 4-10, Rosswurm 0-1, A. Norris 1-1, L. Norris 0-1). Rebounds: Bellmont 28 (Cole 14), Norwell 30 (Rosswurm 10). Turnovers: Bellmont 18, Norwell 6. Personal fouls: Bellmont 5, Norwell 12. Fouled Out: None. Technical fouls: None.
Junior Varsity: Norwell 54, Bellmont 16.
