By RYAN WALKER
Norwell High School came home to Ossian with a regional championship trophy Saturday night in its 58-44 victory over Benton Central — and senior guard Kennedy Fuelling returned as the all-time leading scorer in school’s history.
Fuelling needed 13 points to tie and 14 to surpass Jessica Rupright’s record, and it didn’t look like it would happen at first.
Fuelling had only five points entering the fourth quarter, though she had nine steals. The Knights, who led nearly the entire game, looked like they would ice the game without Fuelling getting the record. But she got rolling quickly in the fourth, hitting a two-point shot within the first two minutes of the quarter.
Then the sharpshooter hit her first three of the contest at the 3:50 mark to wind the record down to three points. She was 0-8 before making the first three.
A minute later, Fuelling sunk her second three in a row to tie it at 1,591.
With the lead in a high-stakes game, Norwell slowed for the next 2:10. Benton Central scraped the next six points, but then began to empty the bench to honor its seniors as the game was already won.
Head coach Eric Thornton wasn’t aware that Fuelling had tied the record on the last three until an assistant told him. That’s when he decided to run the final play for her.
“When we got to the end of the game and when (Bentol Central’s) honoring their seniors, I told our kids that we were basically going to dribble to ball out or get to the foul line, whatever they do,” Thornton said. “But I didn’t know until we went out unto the floor and our assistant said ‘Hey, she could get it right now.’ And that was the first I had heard of it. So, we called a set for Kennedy. So, we got the ball in her hands.”
Initially, Fuelling didn’t take the first look, but she drove the lane and took the final attempt with just over nine seconds left. The ball dribbled around the iron, but it went in.
“She passed up the three, so I was worried a little bit about that, but she knew exactly what she was doing, and she was going to do her thing,” Thornton said. “She got one to fall. Finally, she got a good bounce. I’m just really happy for her. You want the win first, but to get the record at this level on the last play of the game, that was awesome.”
“It means so much,” Fuelling said. “I couldn’t have done it without my teammates at all. They’re always finding me in those types of situations and how they get me open. A lot of it goes to them.”
ryan@news-banner.com
