Last season, an upstart McLouth Bulldogs’ girls’ varsity basketball team went into Winchester and took down the Jefferson County North Chargers on their home court. This year, it was JCN’s chance to turn the tables.
The Chargers did so Friday in McLouth, but it wasn’t easy as a 13-point JCN halftime lead dwindled to the point McLouth led by 1 with less than 10 seconds left. North freshman Jordan Kramer hit the biggest shot of her high school career thus far with a game-winning 3-pointer to give JCN a 60-58 win.
A combination of rebounding and defense helped the Chargers build their healthy halftime lead but McLouth fought back with rebounding and standout play from juniors Missy Rome, Kylie Shufflebarger and Cassidy Bristol.
McLouth came out of the gate flat on offense in the early going as North built a 12-2 lead thanks in part to two 3-pointers by Kramer. McLouth got its first field goal on a 3-pointer by freshman Terri Stewart with time running out to cut the lead to 12-5 entering the second quarter.
JCN’s lead reached double digits again before McLouth trimmed it to 7 midway through the second quarter. North senior Lisa Weishaar hit a 3-pointer with 57 seconds left in the half to make it 35-22 JCN and that held at halftime.
McLouth quickly proved to be playing better in the second half as Shufflebarger hit a short jumper and Rome answered a score by North junior Mallory GrandPre with a 3-pointer to cut the lead to 10. The Bulldogs cut the lead to 6 on a 3-pointer by freshman Morgan Drinnon but the Chargers again built it back to 10 points at 43-33. Rome hit a turnaround jumper off a Shufflebarger defensive rebound, Bristol scored off a Stewart defensive rebound and a Shufflebarger blocked shot was turned into a 3-pointer by Rome and the lead quickly shrank to 43-40 JCN with 1:17 left in the quarter. Two Kramer free throws made the score 45-40 North entering the fourth quarter.
McLouth kept the pressure on going into the final period as Shufflebarger started the quarter with a jumper to cut the lead back to 3 and then scored off a Rome blocked shot to cut the lead to 1. McLouth had a chance to take the lead but turned the ball over and GrandPre hit a jumper in the lane to make it 47-44 North. Drinnon answered with a bank-in 3-pointer to tie the game for the first time since the game’s start with 6:37 left in the game.
After a JCN timeout, North junior Sara Navinskey hit a 3-pointer to give North back the lead and senior Amelia Noll scored off an offensive rebound to make the lead 5 for the Chargers once more. North was able to build the lead back to 9 on scores by sophomore Katie Noll before the Bulldogs made another run. A Shufflebarger score was followed by a Shufflebarger blocked shot that turned into a Rome 3-pointer, Amelia Noll was whistled for an offensive foul and Bristol scored off an offensive rebound to cut the JCN lead to 56-54 and force a Charger timeout with 1:35 left.
GrandPre hit one of two free throws to make the lead 3 but McLouth cut the lead back to 1 and then took the lead on a steal and lay-in by Rome as JCN tried to run down the clock. The score came with 35 seconds left and Rome came up with another steal on North’s next possession as McLouth took a timeout with 22 seconds left.
North was forced to foul three times to get the Bulldogs to the bonus free throw situation and Drinnon drew a foul with 10 seconds left and McLouth up by 1 at 58-57. The freshman missed the front end of the one-and-one free throws and GrandPre pulled down the rebound. The Chargers advanced the ball to half-court before calling a timeout with 5.8 seconds left. The ball was inbounded to Kramer on the left wing and, with an uncontested shot, the Charger freshman sank a 3-pointer with 3 seconds left to give JCN a 60-58 lead. McLouth called a timeout immediately to set up a final attempt to tie the game or win it. The ball was inbounded to Rome, who passed up a long desperation shot to pass the ball downcourt. The Bulldogs couldn’t get a shot off and North took home the 2-point win to improve to 5-0. McLouth fell to 3-3.
JCN head coach Steve Noll said the final play that resulted in Kramer’s winning shot was set up for Kramer to get the ball and, when the defender came out to cover her, look to pass the ball inside for a better shot. When no defender came out to cover Kramer, she stepped up and made the winning shot.
“We had our ups and downs tonight, but it was a whole team effort,” Noll said. “We were up 13 at halftime, which was nice, but I knew they were gonna make a run. We got a little shaky there. I think that month layoff here really made a difference on both sides. We had Amelia covering Rome and she was getting worn down, which is dangerous when you’re playing Rome. Everybody did their part in their own way tonight. We need to play teams that are good like this. We’ve talked about playing all the way through and how you can’t get down when you have downs. It’s a good win for us.”
GrandPre led the way for North with 20 points and 7 rebounds. Kramer added 13 points and Katie Noll chipped in 10 points, including some key scores down the stretch.
Rome led all scorers with 25 points for the Bulldogs and pulled down 5 rebounds with 5 steals. Shufflebarger added 14 points and 4 rebounds and Bristol scored 7 points with 9 rebounds.
North led the rebounding battle, 13-11, at halftime, but McLouth flipped it around to lead overall in the game in that category, 26-24. This was balanced by 14 McLouth turnovers compared to only 11 for North.
North boys 49, McLouth 26
The varsity boys’ game was a close contest for about the first quarter-and-a-half before North ran off with the game to improve to 3-2.
McLouth dropped to 0-6.
One key to the game came on the boards as JCN outrebounded the Bulldogs, 26-8, in the game. The Chargers also got 17 McLouth turnovers while committing only 10.
The game was tight throughout the first quarter as both teams held a 3-point lead at one point. When the dust settled, a late jumper by North senior Matt Perry gave North a 13-12 lead entering the second quarter.
North began to pull away in the second quarter as the Chargers scored the first 7 points of the quarter to build the lead to 20-12 with 5:27 to play in the half. The lead reached 11 before McLouth cut it back to 6 on a 3-pointer by senior Derrick Crouse to make the halftime score 24-18 JCN.
Both teams got out to a slow start in the third quarter as JCN’s lead was 27-18 with 5:28 left in the quarter. McLouth kept the deficit in single digits for the most part but JCN had a 35-24 lead going into the fourth quarter.
McLouth scored the first 2 points of the fourth quarter but wouldn’t score again as North finished the game on a 14-point run to go home with a 49-26 win.
JCN junior Nick Clark led North with 10 points as 10 different Chargers scored in the win. Junior Tyler Noll added 8 points and grabbed 6 rebounds for the Chargers. McLouth was led by 10 points from Crouse.
JCN head coach Jim Brickell said it was nice for his team to start the post-holiday schedule on a good note.
“We lost our last two games coming in, so you worry a little bit about that first game coming back,” Brickell said. “We clicked better offensively the second half and the boys played hard. That’s a key for our team – playing hard the whole game. I also thought defensively we played much better the second half, too.”
