‘Special’ Thunder group has run end in sectionals
JON DYKSTRA/THE FORUM
Nodaway Valley senior Paidyn Linville handles the ball on Tuesday night in Dearborn.
DEARBORN, Mo. — From the time Savanna Marriott, Ava Graham and Paidyn Linville were born, West Nodaway had never had a winning season when they entered high school. Nodaway-Holt had more success, but just one winning year in the last four when Paige Hanson got to high school.
Over the past four seasons, they went 18-10, 19-9, 23-5 and 25-3 as seniors with the Nodaway Valley co-op which was established when they were freshmen. As seniors, they captured the first ever 275 Conference and district titles for West Nodaway and first since 2014 for Nodaway-Holt.
“They are special group of girls,” Nodaway Valley coach Mitch Barnes said. “I told them in the locker room that I love them. I love their grit. I love their determination. I love that they never quit. They are all good human beings, and in life, they are going to be very successful.”
Those program-defining seniors saw their careers end on Tuesday in the Class 2 state sectional with a 58-50 loss at Class 2 No. 5 North Platte.
The eighth-ranked Thunder embraced the challenge of being the underdogs on the road and fed Ava Graham early and often as the Panthers tried a different strategy than she’s seen in years — playing man defense and letting her work 1-on-1.
“In this ball game, they were trying to single her, which was not a good thing to do,” Barnes said. “Then they started trying to double her.
“She has been the anchor of the whole deal. She will probably end up with 1,800 points and 1,400 rebounds so we kinda built everything that we do around her and people knew that.”
Graham feasted with 12 of the Thunder’s 14 first-quarter points. Nodaway Valley had a 6-2 lead early with Graham having all six, then North Platte went on a 13-2 run before Graham had 3-straight baskets to cut the lead to 15-14 after one quarter.
Nodaway Valley took command in the second quarter with a 3-pointer by Hanson making it 26-19 late in the half. North Platte’s Allyson Smith answered with a huge 3-pointer to cut it within 26-22 at the break.
Linville has consistently been among the most underrated players in northwest Missouri as an incredible passer with precision entry passes to Graham and a constantly-improving 3-point shot. She utilized the 3-point stroke to open the third quarter and make it 29-22.
“Most people want to look at how many points you scored,” Barnes said of Linville. “… But if you look at the stat sheet for assists, steals and all that … as far as I’m concerned, she is All-State in my book. There are a lot of games we wouldn’t win without her.”
North Platte continued to divert more and more resources to Graham, and that opened up the 3-pointers as Hanson hit another for a 32-24 lead.
“As she has went, her game has grown with her willingness to shoot the ball,” Barnes said of Hanson. “… When she is on, she is on.”
Graham scored on the inside and made it 37-28. North Platte responded with a 10-2 run to get back within 39-38 early in the fourth quarter.
The Panthers tied the game with 4:30 left on a 3-pointer by Smith and a Camryn Kersten basket gave them the lead. Graham immediately tied it with an and-1, but missed the free throw.
The dagger came with a banked-in 3-pointer by Panther senior Brianna DeBord with 3:13 left. The Panthers closed out the game out with free throws.
“If you’ve watched us over the years, Platte Valley was always the type of team that gave us trouble because they are long, tall and we are all short, but Ava,” Barnes said. “They are very physical and play about nine people and we can’t play nine people. I think their length finally got to us.”
For the game, despite an ultra-aggressive Panther full-court press, North Platte shot 18 free throws while Nodaway Valley shot five.
Graham finished with 24 points while Hanson had 17, Linville had six and Annalee Livengood had three. Marriott, the team’s second-leading scorer, played limited minutes in her second game back from illness.
“She is a tough kid.” Barnes said of Marriott. “When we played Albany there, we were trying to (rotate her) every two minutes. Pretty soon, she goes, ‘please don’t take me out.’ They are all tough. They all have big hearts.”
North Platte was led by Linny Ramsey with 18 and Smith had 17.
Nodaway Valley will look to continue to build next season with junior Haylee Dawson and freshmen Gracie Larabee and Livengood returning as the team’s next generation of leaders.
“We got to the point where if somebody new came into practice and tried to do something stupid, those other girls would look at them and say, we don’t do that here,” Barnes said. “Especially these last few years, we had practice, we didn’t jack around, we didn’t have bad team dynamics. Everyone liked each other and everyone got along. Moving forward, that is going to have to take place and those young girls know how that is, but they are also going to have to step up.”
North Platte plays in quarterfinals on Friday at No. 1 Skyline.
