By RYAN WALKER
The No. 2 team in 2A Bishop Luers (13-1) continued its winning ways, but Norwell (8-7) gave everything it could in a 49-47 loss.
Bishop Luers’ Drelyn Truesdale dropped a deep stepback jumper that was money with Adam McBride’s hand in his face with only 2.3 seconds remaining.
It ended up being the dagger as a late homerun pass from the arm of Huntington University baseball commit Cade Shelton nearly dropped in the hands of Ashton Federspiel. But of course, there was Truesdale again tipping the rainbow pass to twin brother Deron Truesdale and juiced out the final seconds.
“When you get right down to it at the end, they hit a really, really hard shot to win the game,” Norwell head coach Mike McBride said after the game. “Couldn’t have asked for better defense by our guys, and especially Adam on the ball at that time. Kid made a really hard shot and it went in. So, the game didn’t go our way, but great effort by our guys tonight. It was just unfortunate we didn’t get enough to win.”
For a Norwell team that has had its happies and crappies after a 22-4 season last year and graduating virtually everyone from this was a positive test for the team.
Both Knight squads traded the lead throughout the evening, having quick little spurts of offense but nothing more than that.
McBride’s Knights though executed their gameplan and handeled Bishop Luers how it wanted to — methodically.
“I thought we did a nice job tonight keeping the tempo of the game where we wanted it, keeping the pace at a place that it gave us the best opportunity to win at the end. The game’s in the 40s, that’s a team that comes in averaging round 66-68 points per game, and I thought our kids did a good job executing what we wanted to do. We put ourselves in an opportunity to win it at the end.”
But on the back side of that style of play Tuesday night costed them.
With 4:44 left to go, Federspiel dished a backdoor cut to McBride for an easy two, and on the next possession nailed a three to nod the game up at 45. Then Federspiel took two Bishop Luers defenders to the cup and floated a tough shot from the left side of the basket to go through for two. That gave them the lead 47-45 with 3:11 to go.
Norwell earned the ball back after a missed shot and rebound, and motioned its offense around the three-point line over the next minute. Norwell’s Cohen Bailey was trapped in the corner by two defenders, but McBride used a timeout to continue the game of keep away going.
Those antics would quickly be ruined by Dereon Truesdale, who swiped the ball away and marched down the floor and was fouled. He hit both shots and tied the game with 1:23 remaining.
Then, Bishop Luers got the ball back again with a minute left and held on to the ball before head coach Seth Coffing stopped the clock with 12 seconds left.
That was what set up the long jumper from Drelyn Truesdale, which was well defended by Norwell, but and even better make.
“They got nothing going to the rim. They didn’t get a clean look. They got a very contested challenge 16-foot step-back fadeaway shot,” McBride said. “He made it, I mean, we tell out kids all the time ‘if you make a shot like that, they earned it.’ Give the Truesdale kid credit, he deserves it. He made a really hard shot.”
Dereon Truesdale had a game-high 17 points in the game, while Carmani Davis’ three triples in the first half tallied to 13 total points.
Bailey finished the game with 14 to lead Norwell, while McBride and Federspiel added 12.
Norwell’s next game will be at East Noble starting at 1:30 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 27.
Norwell won the junior varsity game 53-35. Nick McBride led the Knights with 19 points, Drew Jolly 14 and Garry Riley 10.
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BISHOP LUERS 49, NORWELL 47
At Norwell
BISHOP LUERS (0-0): Dareon Truesdale 6-13 4-7 17, Carmani Davis 4-8 2-2 13, Drelyn Truesdale 5-12 0-2 11, Danny Kelley 3-7 0-0 6, Cameron Mitchell 1-2 0-0 2, Damium Jackson 0-0 0-0 0, Wesley Javins 0-2 0-0 0, Hunter Meek 0-0 0-2 0, Zach Calderon 0-1 0-0 0. TOTALS: 19-45 6-13 49.
NORWELL (0-0): Cohen Bailey 6-12 2-4 14, Adam MccBride 4-7 1-2 12, Ashton Federspiel 5-16 2-4 12, Cade Shelton 3-4 1-2 7, Owen Wallis 1-1 0-0 2, Kaedyn Quintanilla 0-0 0-0 0.TOTALS: 19-40 6-12 47.
B. Luers 14 12 11 12 –– 49
Norwell 17 9 10 11 –– 47
Three-point FG: Bishop Luers 5-19 (Davis 3-5, Dr. Truesdale 1-5, Da. Truesdale 1-4, Kelley 0-3, Mitchell 0-1, Calderon 0-1), Norwell 3-9 (McBride 3-6, Bailey 0-3). Rebounds: Bishop Luers 21 (Da. Truesdale 4, Dr. Truesdale 4, Kelley 4, Jackson 2, Mitchell 2, Meek 1), Norwell 25 (Chelton 9, Federspiel 6, Bailey 4, McBride 2, Wallis 2). Turnovers: Bishop Luers 4, Norwell 11. Fouls: Bishop Luers 12, Norwell 13. Fouled Out: None. Technicals: None.
JV: 53-35 Norwell.
