Lady Trojans power through Bluejays
After getting the ball from a teammate, Nodaway-Holt’s Amanda Bohannon nets the layup in her game-high 27 points as the Trojans went on to win 68-37.
With both teams down and out for numbers, the Nodaway-Holt Trojans and the Northeast Nodaway Bluejays were both tasked with focusing on quality over quantity. In that search Tuesday, it was the Trojans who came out ahead with a 68-37 runaway win over the Bluejays in Ravenwood. The win notched a 275 Conference win for the Trojans.
Amanda Bohanon led the way with 27 points and most of the Trojans’ points were in transition. It all started with strong defense.
“We’ve never played man before,” Nodaway-Holt head coach X Petersen said of his team’s defense against Northeast Nodaway. “But I looked at what we had out there and I felt we would be able to make the most of that style and key in on those transition baskets, and as you can tell they did what was asked of them.”
When Nodaway-Holt wasn’t earning buckets from its defense, its speed allowed them to spread the Bluejays’ defense that allowed players like Macie Bohannon (22 points) to drive the open lane.
On the flipside, Northeast Nodaway held its own in the second half with sharp shooting from Gerry Runde who netted six 3-pointers in her team-leading 22-point performance.
“We really don’t have a big inside game this year so we’ve been putting up a lot of shots from outside,” Northeast Nodaway head coach Joyce Stiens said. “It’s good when you’re hitting them, like tonight, you just know you’re not always going to be that lucky.”
Tied at 12-all after the first quarter, Nodaway-Holt edged over Northeast Nodaway with a 27-22 lead into halftime.
It was an 11-point streak mid-third quarter that really swung the momentum in the Trojans’ favor, six of which were off transition layups by Amanda Bohannon. Petersen said making those transition layups was what really made the win such a wide margin.
“Our girls getting those steals and knowing that Amanda was going to be there waiting for the transition layup really was a great combination for us tonight,” Petersen said. “Looking back over the last four games we’ve played I bet we’ve lost 80 points because we didn’t make those transition layups, but tonight we netted about 40 points that way, just off of effort.”
Nodaway-Holt led 51-30 after three quarters, and kept the pressure on the Bluejays, who were visibly exasperated in three quarters of chasing their faster opponents. Nodaway-Holt put the full-court press on the entire second half and it worked on multiple fronts.
“That really wore us out,” Stiens said of the defensive pressure put on by Nodaway-Holt. “They’re a little quicker and more athletic than we are, and when you have freshmen playing out there you have to get them used to the game before they can truly contribute.”
The Trojans outscored Northeast Nodaway 17-7 in the final quarter after being boosted by a 10-point run at the start as Nodaway-Holt went on to win it 68-37.
NODAWAY-HOLT: POINTS (FG made, FT made-att, 3 pt made)- Amanda Bohannon 27 (13, 1-2, 0); Breanna Day 19 (4, 2-2, 3); Maddie Lance 9 (3, 3-6, 0); Halle Clement 7 (3, 1-2, 0); Macie Bohannon 6 (3, 0-0, 0).
NORTHEAST NODAWAY: POINTS (FG made, FT made-att, 3 pt made)- Gerry Runde 22 (2, 0-0, 6); Makayla Adwell 13 (5, 0-2, 1); Gabby Briney 2 (1, 0-0, 0).
REBOUNDS: NODAWAY-HOLT 34 (Breanna Day 9, Halle Clement 3, Amanda Bohannon 3, Maddie Lance 6, Sidney Leeper 2, Macie Bohannon 11). NORTHEAST NODAWAY 25 (Jane Walker 1, Makayla Adwell 5, Gerry Runde 8, Gabby Briney 10, Brittany Moran 1, Brea Coulter 1).
STEALS: NODAWAY-HOLT 17 (Day 2, Amanda Bohannon 6, Lance 2, Leeper 2, Macie Bohannon 5). NORTHEAST NODAWAY 4 (Walker 1, Adwell 2, Runde 1).
Northeast Nodaway’s leading scorer, Gerry Runde, eyes a 3-pointer into the hoop in the first quarter.
Stopping a Northeast Nodaway drive early, Macie Bohannon of Nodaway-Holt nabs the ball for a transition basket of her own to keep her team’s defense pressure up.
