Mustangs pick up second-straight win
JON DYKSTRA/THE FORUM
North Nodaway sophomore Lily Blane fires a pass against South Holt on Friday in Hopkins.
HOPKINS, Mo. — It was Senior Night in Hopkins and the girls basketball team didn’t have anyone to celebrate as the young team has been building without a senior, but by the end of the night, the Mustangs did get to celebrate their second-straight win.
“It feels really good to know that all the work we put in is actually mattering and is actually helping us get better,” North Nodaway junior Addalea Barcus said.
After a 36-32 win on Tuesday at Union Star, North Nodaway got their first home win of the season on Friday by closing out the home schedule with a 38-22 win over South Holt — their fifth overall win of the season.
“It feels really good,” North Nodaway junior Lacy Riley said. “I feel like that was definitely a team win. Everybody was contributing, everybody was playing really good, everybody was shooting really good. We’ve kinda struggled a little bit, but we are on our way back up and it feels really good for all of us.”
Defense fueled the early success for the Mustangs as the team shutout the Knights in the first quarter. South Holt finds themselves in a similar building process to North Nodaway without a senior on the roster and with one win this season.
“Defense is one of the things that we work on the most since we don’t really have a big scorer anymore,” Barcus said.
Riley got the Mustangs on the board on the first possession with a 3-pointer. Riley has been struggling with her 3-point shot this season, but seeing the first one of the game go in was a confidence boost for her and her teammates.
“Obviously we are young,” North Nodaway coach Sami Jackson said. “So when somebody like Lacy comes in and hits that three right off the bat, everyone else gets that ‘oh, this is how its going to go’ feeling. And it really helps when they are all celebrating each other.”
Defenses ruled much of the rest of the quarter, but Barcus got a putback bucket late in the quarter and then fired up a shot that junior Jackie Wray turned into a assist to end the first quarter. Barcus was forced to fire a long 3-pointer as the seconds ticked off the clock and the ball was falling short, but with shades of Lorenzo Charles famous play for NC State to win 1983 National Championship, Wray swept in, caught the ball and put it in to beat the buzzer.
South Holt got on the board in the second quarter with Jacelyn Fansher hitting a pair of free throws, but North Nodaway responded with a Lily Blane free throw, basket from Barcus and Riley’s second 3-pointer of the night to push the lead to 13-2.
After the margin was 14-4 at halftime, Blane, the Mustangs sophomore point guard, got aggressive and hit the first shot of the second half and quickly followed that with a 3-pointer to extend the margin to 19-4.
“She has probably the most frustrating role of anyone on the team,” Jackson said. “Because we just can’t sub her out whenever she makes mistakes, and she has known that all year and done her best to stay positive. Tonight, I think she was able to just kinda forget it and move on, and it worked in her favor.”
The Knights showed resolve and chipped into the lead with a 11-3 run. Blane ended that run with a steal in the closing seconds of the quarter and finished an and-1 for a 25-15 third-quarter margin.
South Holt connected on another 3-pointer to cut the deficit to 25-18, but Barcus lined up a 3-pointer to kick off an 11-0 run to put the game away.
“It felt really good,” Barcus said. “I’ve been struggling a little bit with those outside ones, so it felt really good to finally get one.”
Four different Mustangs hit 3-pointers in the game as Blane led all scorers with 13 points — 12 in the second half. Barcus had nine points while Riley had six, and Wray and Hansen each had five.
“We are not forcing things as much and we are letting the play come to us,” Jackson said. “We are letting offense come to us. Instead of forcing things, we are working the ball, finding the right people and we aren’t just settling for whatever they want us to do.”
The Knights were paced by Chloe DeBee with eight and Trista Plummer with seven. Lexi VanHoutan added three while Sophie Mendenhall and Fansher each had two.
North Nodaway finishes up the regular season on the road with games at King City on Tuesday, at Pattonsburg on Thursday and at Nodaway Valley on Friday. South Holt finishes up its regular season on Tuesday with a home game against Northeast Nodaway.
“I think we are definitely on the up side of the hill,” Riley said. “Building off these wins this week is just going to help us with our confidence. We are just going to play as a team even better than we have been.”
