By Justin Sokeland
WBIW.com
EVANSVILLE – The invitation was too enticing to ignore or decline.
Evansville North, refusing to deal with the intricate screens of Bedford North Lawrence’s age-old, still-effective base man offense, spread out in a zone, allowing the long-distance launch. Considering the statistics, it was a wise move. Indiscretion, and a polite turn down, would have the better part of valor for the Stars.
Alas, BNL accepted the appealing offer. Negotiators live by the “never take the first offer” rule. That would been solid advice for BNL to heed. Several misfires later, the Stars trailed by double digits after six minutes and lacked the firepower to recover.
The hot Huskies broke to a 13-0 lead en route to a 51-36 victory on Saturday afternoon. With Libby Blythe scoring 17 points, North (9-6 with six wins in its last seven games) kept the Stars mired in their misery as BNL (4-12) suffered its seventh straight loss.
BNL’s 0-for opening, with Jordynn Blann breaking the ice at 1:40 with her 3-point play, set the tone. In fact, the Stars never got too warm, hitting 6 of 29 from trey land and 13 of 45 (28.9 percent) overall. BNL did scramble within six (35-29) early in the fourth quarter, but North went on an 11-0 run to end the suspense.
Quick triggers, the willingness to take the first available look, played into North’s plans. The Stars missed their first nine from deep.
“We were so impatient,” BNL coach Greg Burton said. “I’m not saying they were not open shots, but we have to be able to run offense and get something better. We settled for too many quick shots.
“I love our basketball team. We have to play really sound, fundamental basketball, and we dug ourselves a huge hole. You have to be on fire to come back, and we can’t rely on that. We have to play better basketball.”
BNL did have a good extended stretch, Trailing 32-16 midway through the third quarter, Miley Sherrill sparked a run with a wing trey, Tori Nikirk scored in transition, Trinidy Bailey converted a steal into a breakaway, and Katie Godlevske came off the bench to end the third with a bomb and start the fourth with another, the surge that got the Stars to the six-point margin. North took care of that during the next three minutes.
“Bedford has struggled the last couple of weeks, and we felt if we could get a lead early, it would benefit us greatly,” North coach Tyler Choate said. “We did not want to defend that low offense they run. They’ve been running that since Damon (Bailey) was there. We figured to play a zone and not guard them as much.”
Sherrill and Godlevske (who continued her productive trips to Evansville with half the treys for the Stars) paced BNL with 9 points each. BNL also had 15 turnovers, 10 in the first half, against North’s 2-1-2 full-court pressure and the 1-2-2 zone.
“It was not the press,” Burton said. “Once we break the press, we have to settle down. You don’t have to score right when you break the press. We were rushing to score rather than running offense.”
Blythe was the main scorer – “She was a load today. She was good,” Choate said – but she had plenty of support from Zhaeyana Cooper (10 points), Evie Sale (8) and Azaria Finn (8).
BNL is scheduled to host Jennings County, depending on the impact of the predicted winter storm, on Tuesday.
BEDFORD NL STARS (36)
3s FGs FTs R F Pts
22 Miley Sherrill, f 2-5 3-11 1-2 1 2 9
30 Makaya Jackson, f 0-0 2-3 0-0 5 3 4
32 Trinidy Bailey, g 0-4 2-6 2-2 6 4 6
12 Tori Nikirk, g 0-6 1-8 0-0 2 5 2
21 Jordynn Blann, g 0-3 1-5 1-1 2 0 3
23 Katie Godlevske 3-7 3-7 0-0 3 3 9
24 Elise Williams 0-1 0-1 0-0 0 2 0
20 Paige Burton 0-1 0-1 0-0 0 0 0
44 Sammie Nusbaum 0-1 0-2 0-0 2 0 0
50 Harryson Hayes 0-0 0-0 0-0 1 0 0
40 Caroline Shelton 1-1 1-1 0-0 0 0 3
11 Trinity Schmeichel 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
31 Elahdy Ray 0-0 0-0 0-2 0 0 0
Totals 13-45 6-29 4-7 27 19 36
EVANSVILLE NORTH HUSKIES (51)
3s FGs FTs R F Pts
23 Maddy Knies, f 0-1 0-2 4-8 7 0 4
35 Libby Blythe, f 2-7 7-16 1-1 6 0 17
11 Evie Sale, g 2-6 2-7 2-4 2 2 8
12 Azaria Finn, g 0-2 2-6 4-4 4 1 8
3 Zharyania Cooper 2-3 3-6 2-2 4 1 10
1 Lexi Scott 0-1 1-3 2-2 0 2 4
33 Gracie Watkins 0-0 0-0 0-0 1 0 0
14 Addy Gibson 0-0 0-0 0-0 1 0 0
Totals 6-20 15-39 15-21 27 6 51
Bedford NL 5 7 14 10 – 36
Evan. North 15 11 9 16 – 51
Turnovers – BNL 15, North 10
Field goal percentage – BNL 13-45 (.289); North 15-39 (.385)
Free throw percentage – BNL 4-7 (.571); North 15-21 (.714)
