By ANDREW FEEBACK
GAS CITY — Ian Potts made a three-pointer at the buzzer to defeat the Norwell Knights 45-42 in the opening round of sectional play at Mississinewa High School Wednesday night.
The season ended abruptly for the Knights, who finished with a record of 14-9 and had won five straight entering the postseason. Peru will take a 13-10 record into the semifinal round later this week and face Oak Hill.
Norwell started hot, jumping out to a 14-5 lead after hitting five straight shots, four of them from beyond the arc.
The Knights held an 18-12 lead after the first quarter, but seemed to hit a wall in the next period.
“Early in the game, we had good ball movement, and we got really good shots,” coach Mike McBride said. “The second quarter, we rushed. We didn’t get the ball inside. We needed to get inside touches and play off the inside touches, and we just didn’t do that.”
Norwell missed nine straight shots to begin the quarter, and the Tigers gradually worked their way back. Back-to-back buckets from Alex Ross put them in front 22-20, and a three-point play from Matthew Roettger made it 25-23. Roettger then came up with a steal and took it in for a layup that gave Peru a four-point cushion at the break.
Points were hard to come by in the third quarter, even though McBride felt his team did a better job of finding shots.
“We missed some shots that were good shots,” he said. “We got ourselves good shots, we just didn’t convert them.”
Peru widened its lead to 36-27 by the end of the third, but Norwell didn’t go away quietly.
A mini-run by the Knights got them within 38-35 after Cade Shelton’s put-back at the 4:34 mark.
Roettger got to the bucket for a layup, then Xavier Turner hit a short baseline jumper to put the Tigers up 42-35 with 2:51 to play.
Cohen Bailey made back-to-back threes to bring the Knights within one with 1:06 left.
After the Tigers turned it over, Ashton Federspiel was fouled with 33 seconds to go. He made his first attempt to tie the game, but missed the second.
With the Tigers playing for the last shot, Roettger drove baseline, was cut off, nearly fell down, and threw an under-handed pass barely above the floor out to Potts on the wing. Potts got the shot off just before the buzzer sounded.
“Give our kids credit to get themselves back into it,” McBride said. “We tied it up, and it was unfortunate we didn’t get the free throw to take the lead. Just kind of a lucky break went their way. That’s just how it went.”
The Knights got 15 points from Cohen Bailey and 12 from Cade Shelton in their final high school games. Adam McBride added eight and Federspiel had seven.
Roettger topped the Tigers with 17 while Ross had 13.
The postseason can be an unforgiving time of year for basketball teams, which is why McBride is pleased with what his team accomplished over the past few months.
Norwell went 11-3 in games decided by fewer than 10 points and won all three of its games that went to overtime.
“I think we exceeded a lot of people’s expectations,” he said. “Our kids competed really hard, and I thought our seniors were really good.”
The Knights will graduate Bailey, Shelton, Federspiel and Trace Moser.
“Trace didn’t really get a chance to play due to an injury from football,” McBride said. “Cohen Bailey was outstanding; he had a great career at Norwell. I loved coaching Cohen, he brought it every night. Cade Shelton, great athlete, was glad to have him back on the court this year. Ashton Federspiel was our leading scorer all year and did a lot for us.
“I can’t thank our four seniors enough for what they did,” he continued. “It was unfortunate that we weren’t able to advance to the Friday night game, but when you get a tight game like this, sometimes those things happen, and unfortunately, we were the ones on the wrong end tonight.”
ryan@news-banner.com
PERU 45,
NORWELL 42
At Mississinewa
NORWELL (14-9): Cade Shelton 5-8 2-4 12, Caiden Petrie 0-0 0-0 0, Garry Riley 0-0 0-0 0, Kaedyn Quintanilla 0-3 0-0 0, Adam McBride 3-8 0-0 8, Owen Wallis 0-1 0-0 0, Cohen Bailey 5-10 2-2 15, Nick McBride 0-0 0-0 0, Ashton Federspiel 2-13 2-4 7, Drew Jolley 0-0 0-0 0, Ryne Thornton 0-0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 15-43 6-10 42.
PERU (13-10): Ian Potts 2-7 0-0 6, Ben Wynkoop 0-0 0-0 0, Gavin Eldridge 1-4 0-0 3, Zion See 0-0 0-0 0, Alex Ross 5-7 1-2 13, Reis Bellar 0-1 0-0 0, Matthew Roettger 8-15 1-1 17, Xavier Turner 3-5 0-0 6, Jaxon Manriquez 0-0 0-0 0, Oliver Rabe 0-0 0-0 0, Isaac Braley 0-0 0-0 0, Jackson Boswell 0-0 0-0 0, Treson Ambrose 0-0 0-0 0, Talin Douglass 0-0 0-0 0, Jacob Boswell 0-0 0-0 0, Ryne Butt 0-0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 19-39 2-3 45.
Norwell 18 5 4 15 — 42
Peru 12 15 9 9 — 45
Three-point Field Goals: Norwell 6-19 (Bailey 3-6, Adam McBride 2-7, Federspiel 1-3, Quintanilla 0-2, Wallis 0-1), Peru 5-18 (Ross 2-4, Potts 2-6, Eldridge 1-2, Roettger 0-4, Bellar 0-1, Turner 0-1). Rebounds: Norwell 20 (Federspiel 7, Shelton 6, Adam McBride 4, Quintanilla 1, Wallis 1, Bailey 1), Peru 21 (Ross 7, Roettger 7, Potts 2, Eldridge 2, Bellar 2, Turner 1). Turnovers: Norwell 10, Peru 13. Fouls: Norwell 9, Peru 10. Fouled out: None. Technicals: None.
