By RICK SPRUNGER
AUBURN — Norwell got its Northeast 8 Conference season off on the right foot Friday night at DeKalb.
The Knights rode blazing hot shooting to a 55-44 win over the Barons in the conference opener for both clubs.
Norwell improved to 4-2 in all games while DeKalb fell to 3-3.
“We shot the ball extremely well, especially from three-point range,” stated Norwell coach Mike McBride.
Understated, actually.
Norwell hit on 6-7 first-quarter shots, five of them threes, to bolt out to an early lead, and finished 15-for-24 from the floor for a white-hot .625 shooting percentage.
The Knights were 9-18 from the arc and a perfect 6-6 from two-point range. They were also 16-19 from the free throw line, including a perfect 12-12 in the second half.
Adam McBride led the way for Norwell in scoring with 22 points while Josh McBride added 15 and Nick McBride 10.
“Adam McBride showed great leadership tonight,” said coach McBride after the game. “But I also have to give a ton of credit to Owen Wallis, Garry Riley and Ryne Thornton. They weren’t the ones scoring the points, but they did a great job of guarding their guys and taking away their inside game. We switched from a man-to-man defense to a matchup zone, and that was when we went on a run that got us out in front.”
Norwell’s blazing hot shooting staked the Knights to a 14-9 lead late in the first quarter, and they brought the ball up the floor looking for the last shot of the period.
DeKalb had fouls to give and gave them first with 0:05 left and then with 0:02 to play.
Didn’t matter.
Norwell inbounded the ball to Riley, who nailed a three from the right wing on his only shot of the game to make it a 17-9 spread.
When Adam McBride scored from underneath in the first 11 seconds of the second period, the margin was 10.
Brady Culler zipped a three to get the margin back down to seven, but the Barons struggled the entire period against the matchup zone.
DeKalb hit just 2-11 shots in the quarter while committing three turnovers and falling into a 29-15 hole.
But the Barons went back to their bread and butter in the third quarter and made a strong push.
“They are a very physical team,” said McBride later. “They have a lot of bodies and a lot of strong, physical kids. They rotate so many guys, and they press and trap and just try to wear you down.”
The Norwell lead reached 16 points at 32-16 on three free throws by Adam McBride after he was knocked down trying to shoot from behind the arc.
And it was back to 15 at 34-19 when Riley fed Wallis with a pretty pass underneath at the 6:11 mark.
But after that, DeKalb outscored the Knights, 10-2, over the remainder of the quarter to get within 36-29 and started the fourth quarter with the ball.
“We have a lot of guys without a lot of experience,” commented McBride later. “We got kind of timid at times against their physicality. We need to learn to be more aggressive in those situations.”
But Kayden Palumbo missed a three-pointer to start the fourth quarter that would have trimmed the margin to four, and then the McBrides took over.
Adam drove the left side for a layup, Nick buried a 23-foot three from the right side, and Josh connected on another three moments later to make it 44-29 with 4:58 left that pretty much sealed the deal.
DeKalb, a deliberate, half-court team not particularly suited for quickly scoring points in bunches, never got closer than nine points after that and only got that close once with less than a minute remaining.
DeKalb took nearly twice as many shots (47) as Norwell (24) but connected on just 16 for a .340 percentage.
Norwell outrebounded the bigger Barons, 22-19.
Norwell also took the junior varsity contest, 41-31. Cade Thornton scored 14 points and Trey Privett 11 to lead the Knights.
Noah Comer added seven points, Vinny Freiburger six, Jack Richardson two, and Cooper Bunn one.
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NORWELL 55, DEKALB 44
At DeKalb
NORWELL (4-2, 1-0 NE8): Owen Wallis 1-1 0-0 2, Garry Riley 1-1 0-0 3, Adam McBride 7-11 6-8 22, Josh McBride 4-6 3-3 15, Nick McBride 2-5 4-4 10, Ryne Thornton 0-0 1-2 1, Noah Comer 0-0 2-2 2. TOTAL: 15-24 16-19 55.
DEKALB (3-3, 0-1 NE8): Kayden Palumbo 0-2 1-2 1, Brady Vince 4-9 1-2 12, Brady Culler 1-4 1-2 4, Zeke Penrod 1-6 0-1 2, Caiden Hinkle 2-4 0-0 4, Dalton Cox 4-7 0-0 11, Caden Rice 2-4 0-0 4, Myles Dobson 0-0 0-0 0, Graden Pepple 2-11 0-0 6. TOTAL: 16-47 3-7 44.
Norwell 17 12 7 19 — 55
DeKalb 9 6 14 15 — 44
Three-point Shooting: Norwell 9-18 (Riley 1-1, A. McBride 2-6, J. McBride 4-6, N. McBride 2-5), DeKalb 9-32 (Palumbo 0-2, Vince 3-7, Culler 1-4, Penrod 0-2, Hinkle 0-1, Cox 3-4, Rice 0-1, Pepple 2-11). Rebounds: Norwell 22 (A. McBride 6), DeKalb 19 (Culler 5). Turnovers: Norwell 14, DeKalb 7. Personal fouls: Norwell 15, DeKalb 21. Fouled out: None. Technical fouls: None.
Junior Varsity: Norwell 41, DeKalb 31.
