By RYAN WALKER
FORT WAYNE — It wasn’t the result Norwell wanted, but it sure did prove that it belongs on the court with anyone.
The No. 8 Knights (3-3) went toe-to-toe with the No. 3 ranked team in 4A in the state. The Knights and Homestead Spartans (4-0) clashed in an offensive night in which both teams combined to shoot 53% from the floor. Norwell fell 76-66 to the hosts, but a good chunk of the game was in its favor.
The Spartans and Knights were coming off of semi-state appearances last season, but the difference this year is that Homestead returned all of its talent. Junior Myah Epps has received Division I offers, including Michigan, Louisville, Purdue, Miami and Florida. Junior Gabby Helsom is bound to also commit to a Division I school, and both Carley Moellering and Whitney Ankenbruck are on their way to NAIA’s No. 3 school Indiana Wesleyan. Norwell’s team this year is mostly new to the varsity level, but that didn’t scare the Knights whatsoever.
Norwell jumped right on the Spartans in the first quarter. Addison Norris lit up the scoreboard with a three-pointer early. For the next six and a half minutes, the Knights led until a Spartan’s bucket with six seconds remaining in the quarter to make it a thin 21-20 margin.
That lead would not hold for long, as Macie Saalfrank got involved with a two and Ashley Waldman’s big night began with the first of her five threes on the night.
The high-scoring affair continued with both schools firing and swishing from all over the floor. Not a single shot gave any reliable breathing room, but the Knights still was ahead.
Norwell went up by six at the most in the second quarter, but that’s when the Spartans began to find their groove.
For a six-minute span, Homestead went on a 17-10 run that began with a Whitney Ankenbruck three. Norwell’s Alivia Green scored an easy two by the basket, but Epps and Helsom scored the next six points in the paint to get back down by one.
Waldman responded with her second three, which was answered by Helsom’s three. Saalfrank then countered with one of her own. Back and forth they went, but Helsom got the last laugh and hit her third of the half with 18 seconds to go. That stole away a one-point lead at halftime. In the second quarter, it was an even-steven 17-17 and the Spartans remained on top by one point.
Both teams shot lights out, but Norwell hasn’t done it this well all season.
The team’s leading scorer, Vanessa Rosswurm, scored 14 points and hit one three, but it was the rest of the team that stepped up together. As a unit, Norwell shot 61% from downtown from five different players.
“For us to be able to get the quality of shots that we got against them, and then to not be afraid to take them, but also to be able to knock them down, that’s really hard to do and to be able to do it for four quarters,” head coach Eric Thornton said.
Rosswurm made the biggest individual contribution in the first half, scoring 14 points on six made shots. She was needed to counter the trio of Helsom, Moellering and Epps, who scored 28 points combined in the half.
The third and fourth quarters were where Homestead separated the talent and experience over Norwell.
Rosswurm was bottled up in the paint, and was reduced to just four points in the second half. Meanwhile, Helsom was on her way for a big night.
“Anytime you make a mistake against a team like that, you pay for it every single time,” head coach Eric Thornton said. “That happened tonight. A soft pass or a missed rebound — things like that. They just expose you on those types of things. So there’s very, very little margin of error against a team at that scale.”
Again, the Knights came out swinging. For the third straight quarter, Norris hit a corner three and Rosswurm picked up a bucket that took the Knights’ lead up to four points.
The pushback the young Knights gave was enough to wake up Helsom for perhaps the best two quarters in her career.
The 5’11” forward stretched the floor with deep shots, drove the lane to pick up fouls and hit her free throws on her way to a 34-point performance. From three, she was a stellar 7-8.
She hit back-to-back threes in the third to give her Spartans the advantage that never went away. Epps cleaned up another bucket and immediately, Thornton used a timeout to calm the storm.
An unexpected three and layup followed from Haley Williamson, who showed out for a much-needed eight-point game from her.
But the Spartans kept scratching. Their end-of-quarter run got to 7-0 and was capped off by a Helsom and-one conversion. Waldman did hit her third three of the night, but the five-point lead and momentum were on the side of the home team.
The fourth quarter wasn’t a blowout by any means, but the Knights were just outplayed by what Thornton confirmed likely had to do with the talented roster Homestead has. The quarter was 21-16 in favor of the Spartans — the only quarter that gave any sort of seperation between the two teams.
The Knights refused to give up and even looked like the better team on the floor in stretches. The second half revealed that is wasn’t just Rosswurm who needed to step up, but other players have shown a vast improvement just six games into the season.
Waldman scored 15 points on the night with five threes, Williamson’s two threes tallied up eight points, Saalfrank dropped 13 and Norris 10. They combined together to shoot 13-21 from beyond the arc.
The players on this year’s team have had a tall task of making up for the lost minutes from the state championship team. Tuesday night, they grew up before Thornton’s eyes against their strongest opponent yet and gave the Spartans a run for their money.
“We have a very good team who’s not going to back down to anybody, and we feel that right now,” Thornton said. “I know they feel that about our team, and they understand what they have, and they want to do such a good job. They believe they can beat these teams. They don’t want to just compete, and they want to win. And so in the locker room, when you come in (the locker room) after, you know, is it a moral victory? Yeah, I think so some, but it’s still not a ‘W’ to them, and that’s, that’s okay if they can balance it with what we’re trying to accomplish with this schedule.”
Norwell will host Oak Hill at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 23.
Homestead won the junior varsity contest 58-40. Mia Kurtz led the Knights with 10 points, followed by eight each from Carlee Strunk and Joycelynn Hogsett-Turner.
ryan@news-banner.com
HOMESTEAD 76, NORWELL 66
At Homestead
NORWELL (3-3): Vanessa Rosswurm 7-16 3-6 18, Ashley Waldman 5-7 0-0 15, Macie Saalfrank 5-14 0-0 13, Addison Norris 4-7 0-0 10, Haley Williamson 3-3 0-0 8, Alivia Green 1-2 0-0 2, Ryland Graft 0-0 0-0 0, Larkin Smith 0-0 0-0 0, Mekynzi Beck 0-0 0-0 0, Jada Dale 0-0 0-0 0, Isabella Swineford 0-0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 25-49 3-6 66.
HOMESTEAD (4-0): Gabby Helsom 13-14 1-1 34, Carley Moellering 5-10 0-0 13, Myah Epps 5-14 1-3 11, Kendall McLaughlin 3-4 0-0 6, Delaney Noll 2-3 1-1 5, Whitney Ankenbruck 1-7 1-2 4, Liv Fry 0-0 1-2 1, Eva Scarbeary 0-0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 30-53 5-11 76.
Norwell 20 17 13 16 — 66
Homestead 21 17 17 21 — 76
Three-Point Shooting: Norwell 13-21 (Waldman 5-7, Saalfrank 3-7, Williamson 2-2, Norris 2-4, Rosswurm 1-1), Homestead 11-23 (Helsom 7-8, Moellering 3-7, Ankenbruck 1-5, Epps 0-2, Noll 0-1). Rebounds: Norwell 18 (Rosswurm 5, Waldman 3, Green 2, Saalfrank 2, Norris 1), Homestead 24 (Helsom 6, Noll 4, Epps 2, Fry 2, Moellering 2, Ankenbruck 2). Turnovers: Norwell 13, Homestead 12. Fouls: Norwell 15, Homestead 12. Fouled Out: None. Technicals: None.
JV: 58-40 Homestead.
