By JOSH BURRIS
The Norwell Knights found themselves down just 1 point to the Leo Lions with 3:34 remaining in Saturday’s NE8 Conference matchup at The Castle.
That 1-point gap turned into 11 though in about two minutes, and the Lions left with a 62-55 victory.
Trailing 45-37 early in the fourth quarter, the Knights got two free throws from Luke McBride and two more from Lleyton Bailey to make it a 4-point game.
Caedmon Bontrager made the second of two free throws for Leo, which was answered by a three from McBride. Bontrager followed with a layup on the other end, but Bailey responded with a three to make it a 48-47 game.
Then the Knights went cold, and the Lions took advantage, scoring 9 straight points with some coming off Norwell turnovers.
McBride broke the run with a floater, but Ayden Ruble made one of two free throws, and Brody Hiteshew made a layup to put Leo ahead 60-49 with 55 seconds left.
The Knights did manage to cut the deficit to 5 with 19.5 seconds left, but Jackson McGee sank a pair of free throws with 16.6 seconds left to make the game’s final score.
“We had some turnovers that came at the wrong time in the game tonight,” Norwell coach Mike McBride said after the game.
Norwell ended the game with 16 turnovers while Leo committed 13.
What hurt the Knights even more though was their shooting throughout the game. They connected on just 15 of 42 attempts from the field (35.7 percent) and made just 7 of 23 shots from the 3-point line (30.4 percent).
“We didn’t shoot it as well from three as we can. That hurt. Maybe a couple of those were rushed late,” McBride said. “I thought for the most part we had a lot of good shots. We just didn’t shoot the ball at a high level. The kids really competed and did a great job, but unfortunately we just came up short tonight.”
Even despite the below-average shooting, the Knights hung with the No. 3 team in Class 3A for most of the game.
McBride got the home crowd roaring in the first quarter by hitting a halfcourt three before the buzzer sounded to give the Knights a 13-11 lead.
The largest lead by either side in the first half was 5 points by Leo in the second quarter. Trey Hiteshew tied it up 17-17 with a layup, which was followed by a three from Brody Hiteshew and a putback bucket by DJ Allen to give Leo a 22-17 lead with 3:15 left in the quarter.
Norwell responded with 5 points of its own though, which came on a free throw and jumper from Jake Parker and a layup from Ashton Federspiel to make it a 22-22 game with 22 seconds left.
Ruble got one more basket in the final seconds though to give Leo a small 24-22 halftime lead.
A 9-4 Leo run to start the third quarter put the visitors ahead 35-26. A bucket and-1 from McBride and three from Cohen Bailey made it a 35-32 game with 3:08 left in the quarter though.
The Lions pushed their lead back to 7 at 41-34 thanks to a jumper by McGee and two free throws from Ruble. McBride was fouled on a 3-ponter in the final seconds of the quarter though and made all three shots to cut the Lions’ lead to 41-37.
Leo’s size made it tough for Norwell to get any points inside. Bontrager is listed at 6-foot-8, and Allen is listed at 6-foot-7. Bontrager ended the game with 16 points, 13 rebounds, and three blocks while Allen added 9 points, seven rebounds, and one block.
“I thought overall we had a lot of good shots,” McBride said. “We were in a position. We were there. We had an opportunity. It wasn’t one of our best shooting nights, so give them (Leo) credit for that. They present challenges obviously with their size. And I thought they had some kids hit some big shots.”
Offensively, the Lions made 22 of 46 shots (47.8 percent) and made 4 of 12 3-point attempts (33.3 percent).
The Lions also outrebounded Norwell 28-21.
McBride led all scorers with 29 points, He shot 6-of-11 from the field and made all 14 of his shots at the free-throw line. Lleyton Bailey joined him in double figures with 11 points.
“We’ve got to take this. We’ve got to build from it,” McBride the coach said. “Who knows, maybe we will match up against them somewhere down the line.”
Norwell took the JV game 55-35, but lost the freshmen game 48-36.
Norwell will travel to Wayne on Tuesday for its next game.
sports@news-banner.com
LEO 62, NORWELL 55
At Norwell High School
LEO (8-1, 2-0): Trey Hiteshew 5-9 0-0 10, Jackson McGee 2-3 4-4 9, Xavier Middleton 0-4 1-2 1, Brody Hiteshew 3-6 0-2 7, Luke LaGrange 0-1 0-0 0, Ayden Ruble 3-5 3-4 10, DJ Allen 4-10 1-2 9, Caesmon Bontrager 5-8 5-7 16. TOTALS: 22-46 14-21 62.
NORWELL (8-3, 0-1): Jake Parker 2-9 1-2 5, Luke Graft 1-2 0-0 2, Cohen Bailey 1-3 0-0 3, Lleyton Bailey 3-13 3-4 11, Luke McBride 6-11 14-14 29, Ashton Federspiel 2-4 0-0 5, Brody Bolyn 0-0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 15-42 18-20 55.
Leo 11 13 17 21 –– 62
Norwell 13 9 15 18 –– 55
Three-point Goals: Leo 4-12 (Ruble 1-1, McGee 1-2, B. Hiteshew 1-2, Bontrager 1-2, LaGrange 0-1, T. Hiteshew 0-2, Middleton 0-2), Norwell 7-23 (McBride 3-5, L. Bailey 2-10, Federspiel 1-1, C. Bailey 1-3, Parker 0-4). Rebounds: Leo 28 (Bontrager 13, Allen 7, Middleton 4, Ruble 2, McGee 1, B. Hiteshew 1), Norwell 21 (Bolyn 9, McBride 6, Graft 2, L. Bailey 2, C. Bailey 1, Federspiel 1). Turnovers: Leo 9, Norwell 12. Fouls: Leo 13, Norwell 16. Fouled Out: None. Technicals: None.
JV:Norwell 55, Leo 35
Freshman: Leo 48, Norwell 36
