By RYAN WALKER
It’s raining records for the Norwell girls’ basketball team.
On Saturday, Mackenzie Fuess broke the single-game school record with 37 points, Jessica Rupright’s previous record that took 11 years to be shattered. Three days later, Kennedy Fuelling broke Fuess’s record with 40 points against Concordia Tuesday night.
“I told her (Fuess) that she’s going to have it next game, and we’re just going to trade it off,” Fuelling said after practice Wednesday morning.
Head coach Eric Thornton said that when he went into halftime to look over the stats and make adjustments, he saw that she had 30 points. He tilted his head back, smirked, and had a long “no,” realizing Fuess’s record was on the line.
Norwell, by that point, was up by 12, so Thornton knew that winning the game was more important.
“It’s got to be how the game goes, and they (Concordia) stayed in zone, and we moved the ball well, and that was the big thing.”
Fuelling would tie the record with a three-ball at 37 points, and then coach Thornton described the play from his perspective.
“When she tied it at 37, you could hear some cheers, and that was off of a three, and then shortly after that, we just worked the ball,” he said. “We didn’t run anything specific for her. She just kind of popped by a little screen from Annabell (Johnson), Lilly (Norris) made the pass from the top, kind of faked it one way, and came back towards Kennedy’s side. She just sat behind a little flare screen that Annabell set. I was right behind it, and it looked like it was on line, and you watch it go in. And the crowd knew, which was even more fun. It was fun that everyone was aware of it.”
He said that the bench erupted when she hit the shot, something Fuelling said made it special.
“It was really enjoyable to have my team out there with me,” she said. “I want to credit to them for setting screens and getting me open.”
Fuelling has been dealing with a back injury which has caused her to sit in the last three games. She said that she was good to go and didn’t feel any pain after the game or Wednesday morning.
Fuess and Fuelling will get another chance to break the 40-point mark at Eastbrook at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 26.
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