By RYAN WALKER
A familiar foe stands in the way of Norwell’s fifth regional championship in school history on Saturday. That’s none other than Benton Central, the opposing school that exchanged a fair trade of regional titles in 2020 and 2021 with the Knights, both played at Bellmont High School.
This season, they’ll both be in the middle of the road traveling to Caston High School, a Class 1A gym in Fulton (central Indiana). When the Knights won it in 2021 by a 53-46 score, Kennedy Fuelling was a freshman and went 2-3 from beyond the arc to go with her eight points.
Norwell’s had plenty of success, especially under head coach Eric Thornton, but this tournament has a different feel to it. This year has a roster loaded with seniors who have gone through war together. All seven of them witnessed a heartbreaker in this exact game in a loss to Hamilton Heights. They’ve been through the schedule gauntlet that featured half of the state’s top 10 in the IBCA’s final poll, regardless of class.
It seems that all the hard work comes down to this game and anything beyond it. They have three college signees, the entire starting lineup was named all-conference and is gearing up for a final deep tournament run.
With this team returning all of its players from last year, there clearly was a lot of hype surrounding Ossian’s bunch in the preseason, but Thornton never wanted his team to settle for just being good. He wanted them to learn how to turn it up a notch and contend for something bigger.
That’s difficult to do when they destroy every school, which was a big reason why he scheduled anyone, anywhere that would make them work for it.
What the Knights gained is the ability to crawl out of slumps and find other ways to win when their sharpshooting isn’t there.
The best example was the Columbia City game, where, No. 16 Norwell took down the No. 1 Eagles at the Bird Cage.
The Knights were down 40-34 with 4:01 left in the game, and shot a less-than-stellar 31% from the floor that night, but stormed back and won the game.
“I was so proud of our team for how we fought back in the fourth quarter,” Thornton said after the Columbia City win back in December. “It would have been really easy to let it go at that point, and we didn’t do that.”
In the regional championship loss to Hamilton Heights, Norwell shot 39% and went 6-19 beyond the arc. Perhaps Thornton’s message this season of toughness and getting the job done stuck with them, and this time around will at least be more prepared.
“The four-point loss in the regional to end our season sticks with us and is a daily reminder in how much tougher we need to be in those moments,” Thornton said in The News-Banner 2023-24 winter sports preview tab. “We didn’t play with the toughness needed to advance.”
It’s hard to get a grip on what to expect this weekend with Benton Central.
The Bison are 25-3 and defeated West Lafayette by five points in the sectional championship.
There are no similarities in schedules, but Benton Central has been battle-tested, falling twice to Rensselaer Central’s 22-2 squad, while beating notable opponents Western (16-6), Twin Lakes twice (15-10) and losing to McCutcheon (21-4) by one.
The analytics favor Norwell, as Jeff Sagarin’s ratings has them seventh overall and the Bison 26th. However, it said the same thing last year with Hamilton Heights.
The game at Caston will be at 4 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 10.
And just a reminder, the winner of this game will play for a two-game semi-state. Basically, it’s the state quarterfinal and semi-final for the right to go to a state championship game.
Norwell’s potential destination would be the Huntington North site, but the others include LaPorte, Logansport and Frankfort in the North region.
There will be a pairings show for the semi-state on the IHSAA website at 2 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 11.
ryan@news-banner.com
