By RYAN WALKER
The Norwell Knights tamed the neighboring Bluffton Tigers for the 13th straight time in boys’ basketball at The Castle Saturday night.
It certainly wasn’t pretty, but Norwell (6-2) gritted out a 41-33 victory over the Tigers (4-3) in yet another low-scoring affair.
Last year, the Knights’ winning spread was seven points. This year, it participated in another game where they got ahead and held the fort down for a win.
“If you’ve watched coach McBride against Coach Teagle over the last eight years — when he was at Huntington North and now Bluffton — that’s what this game’s like,” coach Mike McBride said. “It’s a defensive battle, and you’ve got to be gritty and tough, and you’ve got to finish out the game. We knew it was going to be a grinder and it was, and give our kids credit for being resilient and finding a way to finish it out.”
Both teams executed the perfect gameplan on the defensive side, yet couldn’t find a full answer on offense.
The Knights led most of the first half by no more than seven points, but kept the paint dry for the Tigers. Their guards created turnover after turnover and scored on the fast break. It turned out to be much-needed as the Knights were in a shooting drought the entire night.
Bluffton, a strong post team, was swallowed up in the post and limited to just 14 points in it for the game — that was thanks to a hounding Norwell defensive backcourt. The Tigers turned the ball over 22 times compared to the Knights’ eight.
“We did a poor job,” Teagle commented on his team’s post-play. “We didn’t improve the angle to get it in there. We needed to go in there every time. We talked about establish and dominate, and a lot of times it was there and we didn’t enter it. Sometimes it needed to be reversed and then looked in. We just weren’t patient enough, but when you turn it over 18 times, there were 18 possible times you might have been able to go to post.”
Instead, it was guard Nolan Lambert who kept the Tigers in the game.
His trio of threes in the first half cut the Knights’ lead down to four, three and two at the end of the first quarter and into the second.
His fourth triple came early in the third quarter and got Bluffton from down seven points to four, and the second on a last-second shot at the buzzer to make the score 32-27. Those two extra makes in the third quarter gave him a team-high 15 points.
Entering the fourth quarter, the five-point lead for Norwell felt more like 20.
The Knights’ five players on the floor were all speed-type quards and decided to hold the ball, pass it around and keep the Tigers running in circles for eight minutes. The strategy was played the same way the night before when Norwell did it to Adams Central, but more to an extreme against Bluffton.
Norwell hit 10 threes against Adams Central and was not challenged by its 2-3 defense. Bluffton, however, was a man-to-man setup and had been getting under the skin of Norwell’s top scorers all night.
Norwell’s three-point night went 1-14 and shot 32% from the floor. Bluffton was shooting a significantly better 48%, so it didn’t make sense for Norwell to do anything but to reduce the amount of shots taken. The result was a paltry six points for Bluffton in the final quarter. Norwell scored nine, and seven of them on free throws and a no-sweat final quarter.
Teagle didn’t groan about the style of play in the fourth quarter but rather was pointing the finger at his team.
“I have no idea. It’s their fault,” Teagle said. “If we do what we’re supposed to do before that, we’re not in that situation.”
Through the low-scoring game, Lambert and freshman Josh McBride led the field with 15 points. McBride went 4-8 in his first Wells County contest.
Declan Grieser put up 12 points and six rebounds for the Tigers, while Adam McBride and Nick McBride had nine and eight.
Bluffton will be off for a week before hosting Lakewood Park Christian at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 4.
Norwell will be back in action at Elkhart Christian at 10 a.m. Friday, Jan. 3.
Norwell won the junior varsity game 54-28. Trey Privett led the Knights with 19 points, Cade Thornton 11 and Noah Comer 10.
Max White led the Tigers with 13 points, Gibson Grieser and Abram Gehrett six.
ryan@news-banner.com
NORWELL 41, BLUFFTON 33
At Norwell
BLUFFTON (4-3): Nolan Lambert 5-10 0-0 15, Declan Grieser 5-9 2-5 12, Griffin Morgan 2-2 2-2 6, Cameron Williams 0-1 0-0 0, Marshall Gerber 0-0 0-0 0, Austin Geimer 0-0 0-0 0, Ben Maggard 0-0 0-0 0. Kaleb Green 0-2 0-2 0. TOTALS 12-25 4-9 33.
NORWELL (6-2): Josh McBride 4-8 6-8 15, Adam McBride 3-8 3-4 9, Nick McBride 1-5 6-6 8, Owen Wallis 2-5 2-4 6, Garry Riley 1-6 1-3 3, Noah Comer 0-0 0-0 0, Ryne Thornton 0-2 0-0 0. TOTALS 11-34 18-25.
Bluffton 8 8 11 6 — 33
Norwell 12 10 10 9 — 41
Three-point Shooting: Bluffton 5-14 (Lambert 5-10, Williams 0-1, Grieser 0-1, Green 0-1, Maggard 0-1), Norwell 1-14 (J. McBride 1-4, Wallis 0-2, Riley 0-1, A. McBride 0-1, N. McBride 0-4, Thornton 0-2). Rebounds: Bluffton 20 (Grieser 6, Morgan 4, Green 3, Lambert 2, Maggard 2, Gerber 2), Norwell 19 (J. McBride 9, Riley 4, Wallis 2, A. McBride 2). Turnovers: Bluffton 22, Norwell 8. Fouls: Bluffton 22, Norwell 12. Fouled Out: Bluffton Gerber. Technicals: Bluffton 1 Morgan.
JV: 54-28 Nowell.
