In one fell swoop, the Jefferson County North Chargers girls’ varsity basketball team achieved two goals Friday with a 52-37 win over Valley Falls – a Delaware Valley League title and an undefeated regular season.
One, the league title, was a goal of the team all season long. The other, an undefeated regular season, just became a goal as the wins kept piling up for the Chargers and coach Steve Noll. Noll had continued to talk throughout the season about taking it game by game, but he admitted as the season wound down and the team still had a 0 in the loss column, the thought of going undefeated began to gain importance.
“(Going undefeated) kinda became the focus for us the last couple days,” Noll said. “More importantly, we wanted to win the league outright. Our goals this year were to win the league tournament, win our own tournament, win the league regular season title, and another goal we have in front of us this week. We’ve done the first three.”
Noll came into Valley Falls expecting a tough game from the Dragons after getting just that from Valley Falls in their first meeting in the JCN Tournament championship game. North looked like this game would be easier for them in the first quarter but the Dragons would fight back to make the going not so easy.
A 13-2 North run keyed the first quarter as Valley Falls struggled to score and keep from turning the ball over on North’s pressure defense. The Dragons ended up with 10 turnovers in the first quarter alone as North used 3-pointers from freshmen Jordan Kramer and Kate Brickell and 6 points from junior forward Mallory GrandPre to build a 15-4 lead entering the second quarter.
The trend would continue but with more offense from the Dragons as they would commit 8 turnovers in the second quarter but also score 8 points. North held a 19-6 lead midway through the quarter and the advantage reached 15 points before the Dragons trimmed it to 26-12 by halftime.
The Dragons pulled back within striking distance in the third quarter thanks in part to the shooting of senior guard Shelbie Glissman as a jumper from the senior cut the lead to 11 at 27-16. Three possessions later, Glissman hit a 3-pointer to keep the Charger lead at 11 with 2:32 left in the quarter. She hit another 3 with 38 seconds left to cut the lead to 9 at 33-24, which held as JCN’s lead entering the fourth quarter.
The Chargers would put the game away in the fourth quarter thanks mostly to a 13-4 run. Kramer hit a baseline jumper then scored off one of her 8 steals to make it 37-24 North. Senior Amelia Noll scored and was fouled with 5:20 left to make the lead 15 and, after Noll missed the ensuing free throw, GrandPre came through with an offensive rebound and short jumper to give North their largest lead at 17 points. GrandPre would follow with a 3-point play on the Chargers’ next possession to make it 46-28 with 4:39 to play. The Dragons ran off 7 unanswered points to cut the lead to 11 and force a Charger timeout, but it would be too little, too late for Valley Falls. The Chargers were 6-of-7 from the free throw line from then on to salt away the 52-37 win.
GrandPre and Kramer were the offensive standouts for North as GrandPre finished with 22 points and 8 rebounds while Kramer scored 12 points with 8 steals. The Chargers finished the regular season 20-0.
The Dragons were led by 11 points and 6 rebounds from senior post player Chelsey Correll and 10 points and 5 rebounds from sophomore guard Abbey Kearney. The Dragons finished the regular season at 9-12.
Noll said his team will need to be better offensively if North wants to make it through a tough 3A substate field this week in Marysville.
“We played well coming off that third quarter,” Noll said. The Chargers are the top seed at Marysville but haven’t played three of the teams in the field, including third seeded Sabetha and fourth seeded Riley County. “We’ve got to attack better on offense and hit free throws better. We weren’t hitting them very well that first half. We had a good finish to the game, I thought. It was a whole team effort, again, which you like to see as a coach. We got concerned when Glissman started hitting those threes, but luckily they cooled off a bit. We’re hoping everything goes well this week for us.”
The North girls are the only county team in the Marysville substate as fellow 3A teams Oskaloosa and McLouth are in the Silver Lake substate. North defeated Pleasant Ridge in Monday’s opening round in Winchester.
Valley Falls’ girls are the sixth-seed in the 2A Lyndon regional and were set to take on third-seeded Burlingame in the quarterfinals Tuesday.
Valley Falls boys 50, JCN 39
The boys’ game was filled with fouls as the Dragons took command in the second quarter and held on to defeat their county rivals.
That looked to be anything but the case starting out as North ran to a 6-0 lead broken only when Valley Falls senior Ray Cook finally got the Dragons on the board with a 3-pointer with 2:37 to play in the opening quarter. North ended up taking a 9-5 lead into the second quarter.
The Dragons got back in the game in the second quarter as they tied the game at 9 with 5:05 left in the half and took their first lead of the game on their next possession. They would outscore North, 13-2, in the quarter to take an 18-11 halftime lead.
From there, it was a matter of the Dragons keeping pace as their lead reached 12 midway through the quarter. A 3-pointer by North senior Riley Noll cut the lead to 9 but the Dragons would take a 29-19 lead into the fourth quarter.
The fourth quarter saw a foul called seemingly each possession. The teams would combine for 46 fouls in the game. The Dragons upped the lead to 14 points on a 3-point play by Cook with 6:45 to play and North would be able to get no closer than 8 points the rest of the way in a fourth quarter that saw 41 points scored. Free throws helped the Dragons pull out a 50-39 win.
Cook led the Dragons with 13 points and junior Riley Bunde scored 10 points in the win as Valley Falls finished the regular season at 10-11. North was led by a game-high 20 points from Riley Noll as the Chargers also finished 10-11.
Valley Falls coach Caleb Gatzemeyer acknowledged the game wasn’t pretty but his team would take the win.
“A win’s a win,” Gatzemeyer said. “We’ve gotta do better at knocking down our free throws. It comes down to concentration and a little lack of focus. Inside defensively we’re pretty rock solid, so if we can knock down our shots that’s a big difference for us. We’re getting down to the time of the season where there’s no tomorrow. We’ve got a tough team coming in here, so I’m glad we have some home court advantage. We need to come in fired up and ready to play.”
The Dragons, who are the fourth seed on the boys’ side in Lyndon, defeated Wabaunsee in Monday night’s opening round. JCN’s boys are the sixth seed in boys’ play at Marysville and were set to travel to play Marysville in the opening round Tuesday.
