North Falls Short Against Talawanda

It was a tough two days for North in the Preble Shawnee Holiday Tournament. They struggled against the host team Preble Shawnee, but had a shot at a win against Talawanda. After leading a good bit of the way, North would slip at the end and lose to the Braves 44-37.  Still there were some bright spots – one in Ryan McAdams who would lead the team in scoring both nights.

North played Shawnee first and the host team got out to an early lead and didn’t look back. The Arrows converted North turnovers into points and other wise seemed to score at will.  Rebounding wise, an outsized North seemed to hold their own on the defensive boards, but couldn’t pull down many offensive boards – limiting themselves to one shot most possessions.  

Shawnee lead 39-15 at the half.  Coming out of the break McAdams hit two treys on back to back to possessions, prompting Shawnee to take a time out and get more pressure on the perimeter.  That dampened any thoughts of a comeback and North would later fall 68-42.  McAdams accounted for half of North’s points with 21 – including 4-3 pointers.

This set up the consolation game as Talawanda and North squared off the next night.  Both teams began the game in man to man defenses.  The Braves peeled off two quick baskets, and North took a quick time out to adjust their defense.  A hustling North ran the court thereafter.  Generating turnovers and gaining the lead.  At the end of one quarter, North was up 15-12.

North missed some shots down the stretch at the close of the second quarter, but still held a narrow lead 21-20.  Talawanda’s strategy coming back onto the court was to feed the ball to the post.  This gave the Braves the lead again at the 5 minute mark of the 3^rd quarter. North adjusted and then started to hit their shots.  McAdams hit a trey to give North the lead again and the team finished the quarter strong with a 36-30 lead.

North became more deliberate with the offense late in the last quarter.  Not a slow down, but the team was working the ball around more than they had earlier in the game in an attempt to milk time off of the clock.  But when they did get a shot, they couldn’t finish.  Meanwhile Talawanda was hitting their shots as the teams battled to the finish line.  At the 2:33 mark it was now a one point game.  Then a minute later, Talawanda had the lead.  North missed a lot of shots during this critical juncture. And this time the Braves would not let North back in the game as they completed the evening with a 44-37 win.

Scoring for North: McAdams 11, Louthen 10, Edgin 9, Cordes 4, Woodyard 3.

It comes down to a problem that we have with a lot of our games.  We just can’t rebound the basketball,” stated coach King after the game. “The kids played hard, as hard as they have played all year. Defensively we could not finish possessions out on the boards.”

Ryan McAdams: “He’s starting to settle down and buy into what we are preaching to him.  That is let the game come into him instead of trying to force everything.  But he stepped up really good for us.”

Next he was asked about Jacob Louthan playing well off the bench, “He hustles, he can still be a little timid at times – but that goes back to a lack of varsity experience.  He can shoot the ball pretty good.  Once he gets rolling, he can he can fill it up.  He did a good job of coming off the bench and giving us an extra scorer.”