Mustangs toppled in district semis

By Phil Cobb | February 25, 2015 |

DALTON VITT/DAILY FORUM
North Nodaway sophomore forward Madison Thompson finishes near the rim with North Harrison defenders bothering her shot during the Mustangs’ 50-40 loss to North Harrison in the Class 1, District 15 semifinals. Thompson finished with 11 points to lead her team.

Sometimes, basketball is a simple game. When the North Nodaway girls’ leading scorer was on the floor Wednesday night, the Mustangs were a force. But when sophomore forward Madison Thompson began burying herself in foul trouble, things went sour.

Against a deep front line for No. 2 seed North Harrison, Thompson and third-seeded North Nodaway had difficulty keeping the Shamrocks out of the paint, quickly racking up fouls for Thompson en route to a 50-40 loss for the Mustangs in the Class 1, District 15 semifinals.

“With her on the bench, everyone else kind of went back to playing slower and not as aggressive,” head coach Sami Jackson said. “The last few games, we’ve prided ourselves on how we’ve played without Madison. Tonight, we kind of lost that. … That hurt us a lot when she had to sit that long.”

After North Harrison put the first tally on the board with a pair of free throws from freshman Payton Craig, North Nodaway used a 6-0 run to snare a 6-2 lead out of the gate.

The key to the Mustangs’ offensive success relied on second-chance points stemming from offensive rebounds on the part of Thompson.

Another North Nodaway 5-0 spurt gave it a 13-7 lead late in the quarter, but two more freebies for Payton Craig narrowed the advantage to 13-9 at the end of the first.

The offensive production faded quickly for the Mustangs in the second period, as the Shamrocks compiled the first 11 points of the quarter to take a 20-13 lead. North Nodaway’s first points of the frame came at the 2:03 mark on a jump shot from the left elbow from freshman guard Alisha Davison. With Thompson relegated to the bench in foul trouble, North Harrison was able to take advantage inside.

“I think we did fine, it’s just Madison got in foul trouble,” Jackson said. “When she gets in foul trouble, we can’t be as aggressive anywhere on the court. They came out in that second quarter and they were hitting all their shots, and we were kind of struggling.”

Thanks to the improved presence inside, the Shamrocks held a 24-15 advantage at halftime behind 12 points from senior forward Cooper Sadowsky.

With Thompson back on the floor in the third period, the North Nodaway offense found a way to start rolling, largely thanks to outside jump shots from Davison and sophomore forward Kelsi Oberhauser. However, North Harrison answered nearly every Mustang bucket to negate any cutting into the lead for several minutes.

Finally, toward the end of the third quarter, North Nodaway’s defense held firm for enough possessions to accrue a 6-0 run, narrowing the advantage to 33-27.

“We were trying to get stops and score,” Jackson said. “… If you just tell them to go, usually they go and they don’t pick their foot off the gas pedal and they go. They did that, we just couldn’t get anything to fall at the end.”

But, with 2:06 left in the third, Thompson garnered her fourth personal and was pulled until a couple minutes into the final quarter. On the first possession Thompson exited the game, the Shamrocks put a stop to the Mustangs’ run with a post move from junior forward Haley Craig.

Even with Thompson back on the floor in the final quarter, North Harrison began closing out the ball game thanks to a 7-0 run in the middle of the period that extended the lead to 46-34 behind tough play down low from Haley Craig.

Sadowsky led the Shamrocks with 20 points, followed by Haley Craig and Payton Craig with 13 apiece. Thompson tallied 11 in limited minutes and Davison scored 10. The Mustangs end their season at 13-11 and will lose only one senior, guard Sam Frueh, to graduation.

“(Frueh) has taught them so much when it comes to leadership and hustle,” Jackson said. “She sacrificed so much for this team. The younger girls definitely saw that, they didn’t look past that at all. Next year, someone is going to step up and take her spot because they know what that does for us.”

DALTON VITT/DAILY FORUM
Sophomore guard Kesli Oberhauser fires a wide-open jump shot from the short corner Wednesday night for North Nodaway as it lost in the Class 1, District 15 semifinals to North Harrison, 50-40.