Knights turn over Eagles early, ease to win

It only took a couple of minutes into Friday’s conference matchup against South Putnam for Northview girls basketball head coach Zack Keyes to ask for a timeout.

His group was in a 5-0 hole. And while that wasn’t anywhere near the largest deficit the Lady Knights had come back from this season, Keyes didn’t like what he was seeing on the floor.

His message?

“The message was, ‘We’re not ready to play. We need to get ready to play,’” said Keyes. “That’s all I needed to say.”

Northview responded by forcing six straight turnovers – all of which were turned into easy baskets in transition – to soar past the Eagles.

Northview never let go of the lead, winning by a score of 50-31 to secure its second win of the week.

“We felt like we weren’t ready to play tonight. There was a lot going on tonight and I felt like our kids were focused on everything else that was going on and weren’t focused on the game. We said it during our pregame talk and then we went out there and proved that we weren’t ready to play, but they answered like they’re supposed to,” Keyes said.

South Putnam head coach Brian Gardner credited the Knights for speeding up his team and forcing them into several turnovers, which he noted was the difference in the game. Gardner liked the way his group defended Northview in the half court setting but admitted they had no answers for the hosts whenever they got going on fast breaks.

“They beat us because of what they did in transition,” said Gardner. “I actually thought our half court defense was pretty good, really. They’re really good at pushing into you and really attacking into you, and it’s just something we have not seen a lot of. And so, when you don’t see a lot of it, it takes you a little bit to get used to it. It creates a sense of, ‘What am I doing?’ I thought their defense really created havoc for us.”

From Northview’s perspective, creating turnovers was important, and it played a major factor in the Knights catapulting themselves ahead of the Eagles on the scoreboard. However, after scouring through box scores and watching South Putnam in-person as well as on tape, Keyes and his staff knew they had to keep the Eagles from having a big night on the perimeter.

Mission accomplished.

South Putnam made five shots from the 3-point line, although it came at a 25-percent clip, but only knocked down one of them in the first half. By the time South Putnam found its rhythm from distance, the margin had widened to an insurmountable place and only put a dent in the final tally.

“We can shoot it well when we’re left open. Coach Keyes does a good job, and so that was something he wanted to take away from us. He wanted to push us off the 3-point line, and they did a good job of it,” explained Gardner. “When they do that, you have to be able to handle it and drive it. I thought when we drove it, especially in the first half, we didn’t attack them to get them into fouls. We were thrown off by it.”

Northview, despite winning by 19 points, fell short of South Putnam in the 3-point shooting department as the Knights made fewer shots (2) and connected on a worse percentage (20 percent) than the Eagles. But fortunately for Northview, it didn’t need the long ball on Friday as Brynlee Clarke made her home in the painted area of the floor where the junior scored a game-high 23 points – the same total she had in Tuesday’s win at Cascade – on 11-of-17 percent shooting.

Keyes liked what he saw from the team’s leading scorer, especially her desire to take the game over and put the ball in the basket when her team needed it the most.

“South Put did a really good job. They said, ‘We’re going to take away everybody else and let Brynlee play one-on-one.’ She was able to dominate the game and was very efficient from the field,” said Keyes of Clarke. “Our kids got her the ball in great positions to be successful, and she finished it tonight really well.”

SOUTH PUTNAM (31) — Cline 1-6 1-2 3, D.Gardner 3-8 0-1 7, Pistelli 4-7 0-0 10, Rissler 1-5 0-0 3, M.Gardner 1-4 0-0 2, Wells 1-3 0-0 3, Emmerich 0-5 1-2 1, Kempf 0-1 2-2 2, Holderfield 0-1 0-0 0, Phillips 0-0 0-0 0, Mullin 0-0 0-0 0. TOTALS 11-40 FG, 4-7 FT, 31 TP.

NORTHVIEW (50) — R.White 4-11 0-0 8, Schrader 4-4 1-4 9, Stallcop 2-4 0-0 5, Clarke 11-17 1-4 23, Terrell 1-3 0-0 2, Eldridge 0-1 0-0 0, D.White 0-0 0-0 0, Rounds 0-0 0-0 0, Spetter 0-0 0-0 0, Krause 1-2 0-0 3, DeHart 0-0 0-0 0. TOTALS 23-42 FG, 2-8 FT, 50 TP.

3-point shooting — SP 5-20 (Cline 0-2, D.Gardner 1-5, Pistelli 2-2, Rissler 1-3, M.Gardner 0-2, Wells 1-3, Emmerich 0-2, Holderfield 0-1), Northview 2-10 (R.White 0-5, Stallcop 1-2, Clarke 0-1, Krause 1-2). Rebounds — SP 22 (Pistelli, M.Gardner 5, Cline 4), Northview 22 (Clarke 8, Schrader 5). Turnovers — SP 19, Northview 17. Total fouls — SP 8, Northview 15. Fouled out — none.