By RYAN WALKER
WABASH — Northfield and Southern Wells wasted no time for their first barn burner of the girls’ basketball season.
The rematch of the 2023-24 sectional championship went again to the Norsemen, who took a 54-50 victory over the visiting Raiders to open the season.
Southern Wells took the court for the first time with its new head coach Kyle Penrod, who was also the boys’ head coach for four years. His team trailed by a small margin for most of the game, but valiant comebacks in both the end of the second and third quarters kept them in it — and they briefly took the lead at the end of the third.
Northfield held a lead as strong as nine points in the second quarter, but a short burst of six straight points with the help of a last second layup before the halftime buzzer from Kenzie Paxson kept them within reach.
The issue that the Raiders would face is their leading scorer and rebounder from last season, Ashlie Needler, had four fouls and had to take a seat with 5:25 left in the fourth quarter.
In the third quarter, the Norsemen kept pounding the basket. Camryn Kuhn scored her team six points in a stretch of three minutes to lift them to a five-point lead. But again, the Raiders who pitche another late quarter comeback — only this one was stronger.
“Well, they’re good players,” Penrod said of the Raiders will to come back. “I got lots of girls who can handle it, shoot it and they’re going to make plays. They’re going to hit shots. We might go through some spells where we don’t, but we still finished the game with 50 points. Offensively, we’re going to find ways to score.”
Needler hit back-to-back buckets to get within three points with 1:45 left in the third quarter, but 20 seconds later, Needler picked up her fifth foul and was taken out of the game for good.
The Raiders held tough without their senior leader, as Paxson scored in the same minute as her forward counterpart Needler fouled out. Then, Gracie Reeves nailed a jumper and a three-pointer to get Southern Wells’ first lead since midway through the first quarter, 53-49.
That lead wouldn’t stay for long. Kuhn hit a three to score the first points of the final quarter. As both teams traded blows, Northfield’s Elliot Baker’s converted and-one made it 50-47. Reeves then responded with her second three-pointer of the half to tie the game at 50 a piece with 1:17 remaining.
Outside of Reeves’ three-pointer and a bucket from Erika Beavans, the Raiders relied on free throws due to its 2-18 shooting in the fourth quarter. Reeves’ bucket was the last points from the Raiders despite the team scoring 17 points in the third.
At 40 seconds, Laney Haupert got the Norsemen up for good, and Kuhn took her free throws and sunk them to hit the final at 54-50.
Penrod said that the fourth-quarter shooting woes were due to quicker shots under pressure and an absence of Needler’s senior presence. With her out, the team threw out mostly freshmen and sophomores by the end of the game.
“I think we were rushing a little bit,” Penrod said. “We were trying to force shots there, like (the Norsemen) get a bucket and we would try to get down and answer as quick as we can to drive it in the traffic when it wasn’t really open and not running our offense, which was working for us.”
Needler finished the game with six points and seven rebounds, while Paxson had eight and seven and Beavans 10 points.
An early bright spot for the Raiders was freshman Kaylee Davis, who played in her first career varsity game and made a splash. She hit three shots from the field while also making five free throws. She finished with 12 points to lead the team and added seven rebounds.
Southern Wells took the junior varsity game 39-38 with Ellie DeWeese adding 12 points and Remi Holmes with nine.
Southern Wells will travel to Cowan starting at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 7.
ryan@news-banner.com
NORTHFIELD 54, SOUTHERN WELLS 50
At Northfield
SOUTHERN WELLS (1-0): Kaylee Davis 3-12 5-8, Erika Beavans 4-15 1-2 10, Gracie Reeves 3-6 4-4 9, Kenzie Paxson 4-10 0-0 8, Ashlie Needler 3-13 0-0 6, Aubree Meyer 0-3 2-4 2, Collena Reeves 0-3 1-2 1, Kaylea Coffel 0-4 0-0 0, Kyah Thomas 0-1 0-0 0, Callie Ripperger 0-2 0-0 0. TOTALS: 17-70 13-20 50.
NORTHFIELD (0-0): Elliot Baker7-15 3-3 16,Camryn Kuhn 6-14 2-4 16, Teagan Baer 2-7 2-4 6, 1-7 4-7 6, Laney Haupert 2-10 2-2 6, Faith Krom 1-3 0-0 2, Emily Miller 0-0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 19-58 12-20 54.
Sou. Wells 12 16 10 7 — 50
Northfield 13 14 17 15 — 54
Three-point FG: Southern Wells: 4-16 (G. Reeves 2-3, Davis 1-3, Beavans 1-3, C. Reeves 0-2, Thomas 0-1, Ripperger 0-2), Northfield: 3-15 (Kuhn 2-6, Baker 1-1, Hoffman 0-1, Haupert 0-5, Baer 0-2). Rebounds: Southern Wells 41 (Davis 7, C. Reeves 7, Needler 7, Paxson 5, G. Reeves 5, Meyer 3, Beavans 3, Coffel 2, Thomas 1, Ripperger 1), Northfield: 38 (Kuhn 9, Hoffman 8, Baker 6, Baer 6, Brom 5, Haupert 2, Miller 2). Turnovers: Southern Wells: 22, Northfield 22. Fouls: Southern Wells: 21, Northfield: 15. Fouled Out: Southern Wells: Ashlie Needler. Technicals: None.
JV: 39-38 Southern Wells. Ellie DeWeese 12 points, Remi Holmes 9.
