Mustangs fall to Wolves despite 18 points from Brown
ANTHONY CRANE/THE FORUM
North Nodaway senior Lauren Herndon shoots on Tuesday night in Fairfax.
FAIRFAX, Mo. — The North Nodaway Mustangs couldn’t take advantage of their quick start Tuesday night in Fairfax. The Mustangs took a seven-point lead into the second quarter, but were outscored 38-25 over the next three quarters as East Atchison handed North Nodaway its sixth loss in seven games with a 42-36 win.
“I think their physicality and our mindset with that was a big factor tonight,” North Nodaway coach Sami Jackson said. “We seem to back away from the physicality aside from Saryn. Saryn will eat that up, but everybody else if they get bumped or a hard touch, they start backing off and they can’t readjust.”
Saryn Brown helped the Mustangs to that early lead with eight points in the first quarter. North Nodaway played well defensively in the first eight minutes as they went into the second quarter with an 11-4 lead.
Brown’s jumper to open the second quarter gave the Mustangs their biggest lead of the game.
“Saryn is always really aggressive and sometimes that is a good thing for us, and sometimes it’s a bad thing,” Jackson said. “She started out really confident, strong, and had that mentality that she was going to score and do all those good things for us.”
The Wolves put their first run of the game together midway through the second quarter by outscoring the Mustangs 12-3 over the final five and a half minutes. The run was powered by junior Lizzie Schlueter who scored seven of the 12 points, sending the two teams into halftime tied at 16.
The Mustangs took the lead for the final time early in the second half behind a Jackie Wray basket and two free throws from Brown. But for the second quarter in a row, East Atchison put a run together in the second half of the quarter, outscoring North Nodaway 9-2 in the final four and a half minutes.
Both teams started the final quarter struggling to find the bucket until an East Atchison 3-pointer at the 5:49 mark. The Mustangs cut the lead to six on the next possession with Lauren Herndon’s first basket of the game.
The six-point difference was as close as North Nodaway would get until Herndon’s layup as time expired. The Wolves held a double-digit lead until Herndon’s run of seven points over the final 66 seconds of the game.
“I think we were trying to find somebody else to step up, and that’s something I’ve preached all season,” Jackson said. “I think we saw spurts when Lily came in and took some good shots — and she’s a freshman. If we could get that from our sophomores, we would be more of a threat.”
Brown led the Mustangs with 18 points while Herndon finished second on the team with 10. North Nodaway will quickly find themselves back on their home court Wednesday night in Hopkins as they take on the Nodaway Valley Thunder.
“This is something we have to learn from,” Jackson said. “It’s something that our youth has to learn from because this is a totally different level for these freshmen and sophomores. But if we can learn to play through these physical games, we’ll be fine.”
