By RYAN WALKER
FORT WAYNE — Norwell spoiled Concordia’s Senior Night, swiping back the lead in the fourth quarter to escape 47-42.
Norwell coach Mike McBride used his fouls to give up by three with 7.2 seconds remaining in the game. That sent Cadet senior Cole Hayworth to the line with no more than two points on the table. He missed both, Cohen Bailey got the rebound and sunk both of his shots to ice the game away.
“We were gonna take our chances with the two free throws with our free throw shooters,” McBride said after the game.
That fourth quarter was all Norwell, who is now 13-8 on the season winning its fourth consecutive game.
The Knights held a lead through the entire first half, then a late three by Hayworth — his third of the night — got the Cadets (11-11) back on top near the end of the third quarter. Avery Cook’s pair from the charity stripe gave them a 39-35 edge.
In the final quarter, the Knights jumped quickly on a 7-0 run, highlighted by Adam McBride’s deep jumper that was inches from being a three-ball. He was fouled on the shot, and hit the free throw to regain the lead by one point.
The 7-0 run outdid their six-point third quarter within the first three minutes, in an all-too-familiar close game. This season, the Knights have played in 13 games that resulted in 10 or fewer points (out of 21 contests).
“Third quarter, (Concordia) made a little run — I thought our guys responded in the fourth quarter,” Coach McBride said. “We’ve been in these situations a lot, and so it’s just one of those things where you’ve got to stay focused. You’ve got to stay composed and focus on the position that you’re in. And we did a great job of that.”
McBride finished with a team-high 15 points in the game, hitting three of the four made three-pointers for his team. His younger brother, Nick McBride, hit the other one.
At first, it was Ashton Federspiel setting the tone. The forward fought his way to the basket and scored 10 points in the opening quarter. But for the final three, he only tallied two free throws and one made shot.
That’s when Adam McBride, Cade Shelton and Cohen Bailey came in.
The Knights got nine points from Bailey, seven of which were at the free-throw line. Shelton’s two buckets from underneath and a few sprinkles of McBride points held the team together.
The team also kept the ball in its hands.
“(Concordia’s) just a really, really good defensive team,” McBride said. “They apply a lot of pressure on the ball, they turned teams over — we did an outstanding job all game and taking care of the basketball. I think we had five about five turnovers in the game, and that’s just an outstanding job by our guys tonight.”
Norwell also won the junior varsity game 36-28. Nick McBride led the team with nine points. The trio of Ryne Thornton, Caiden Petrie and Garry Riley had six each.
Norwell will finish off the regular season at Homestead at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 23.
ryan@news-banner.com
NORWELL 47, CONCORDIA 42
At Concordia
NORWELL (13-8): Adam McBride 5-6 2-3 15, Ashton Federspiel 4-11 6-8 14, Cohen Bailey 1-3 7-8 9. Cade Shelton 3-5 0-0 6, Nick McBride 1-1 0-0 3, Owen Wallis 0-2 0-0 0, Kaedyn Quintanilla 0-1 0-0 0. TOTALS: 14-29 15-19 47.
CONCORDIA (11-11): Cole Hayworth 4-12 0-2 11, Avery Cook 3-5 2-2 9, Will Schlegel 3-5 2-3 8, Luke Bultemeier 3-7 0-0 6, Ben Bentz 1-4 0-0 3, Chris Hawk 1-1 0-0 3, Gavin Bartkowiak 1-3 0-0 0, Sam Eggold 0-1 0-0 0, Grant Nix 0-0 0-2 0, River Johnson 0-0 0-0 0, TOTALS: 16-38 4-9 42.
Norwell 16 13 6 12 — 47
Concordia 11 15 13 3 — 42
Three-point FG: Norwell 4-10 (A. McBride 3-4, N. McBride 1-1, Quintanilla 0-1, Bailey 0-2, Federspiel 0-2), Concordia 6-17 (Hayworth 3-8, Cook 1-2, Bentz 1-4, Hawk 1-1, Schlegel 0-1, Eggold 0-1. Rebounds: Norwell 23 (Shelton 8, Bailey 6, A. McBride 3, Wallis 2, Federspiel 2), Concordia 16 (Bultemeier 4, Cook 3, Schlegel 2, Hayworth 2, Eggold 1, Bentz 1). Turnovers: Norwell 5, Concordia 3. Fouls: Norwell 9, Concordia 11. Fouled Out: None. Technicals: None.
JV: 36-28 Norwell.
