Norwood Young America, Glencoe-Silver Lake advance in 2AA

Prep Hoops Graphic

Marc Hugunin

March 4, 2017 @ 01:15 PM

Norwood Young America and Glencoe-Silver Lake advanced to next week’s Section 2AA semi-final. NYA needed OT to get past a stubborn underdog Gibbon-Fairfax-Winthrop, while GSL had an easy time with an injury-depleted St. Peter squad. NYA 68 GFW 64 (OT) Late in the 1st half I noted to my seat-mates that if NYA lost, they would rue the many FT they missed while, if GFW lost, they would look back on the 1st half and regret the many, well, stupid fouls they took. NYA did not lose but I’m sure they still regret their FT shooting: 4-of-11 in the 1st half, 3-of-6 in the 2nd but, then, finally 8-of-12 in OT. Not great, but just good enough. Meanwhile, GFW gave up 3 inches per position and had to be aggressive, but fouls 75 feet from the rim isn’t what was needed. In the end, NYA shot 29 FT, GFW 6, and 4 GFW players played significant parts of the 2nd half with 4 fouls. Emma Jo Elder appeared to foul out with 8 minutes left but the call was then changed. It was never announced who the foul was on and Elder’s number on the scoreboard stayed at 5, but she stayed in the game. Another oddity came late in the 1st half, as the officials put the ball in play, NYA threw a quick pass for a breakaway basket. The officials waved off the basket, and brought the ball back and put it in play again. These were just 2 of a number of controversial calls. But, bottom line, GFW stayed aggressive and NYA played, frankly, a fairly lackadaisical game, well, except for 6-3 junior post Bren Fox. She scored 19 on 9-of-17 shooting, but even missed probably a half dozen bunnies, especially when going to the left hand. She added 18 boards and 6 blocked shots. Elder was GFW’s biggest defender at 5-11 and Fox was able to get the ball deep pretty much at will. NYA turned it over 15 times, but none in OT. GFW led through most of the 1st half but down 23-16, NYA got 2 scores each from sisters Abby and Anna Mackenthun and Fox to go up 27-25. A pair of throws by Emily Heimkes made it 27-all tie at the half. NYA led through most of the 2nd half—33-29, then 43-34 and 51-43 at 6 minutes—but GFW would not quit, taking leads of 52-51 and 58-56. Now it was NYA who needed a bucket by Sam Miller to make it 58-58. It was tied at 60 and 62 in OT, but Miah Busse, then Katelynn Firle fouled out for GFW and Fox, Abby Mackenthun and Kali Grimm made those 8-of-12 throws for a final margin of 68-64. “They exploited their strengths very well,” Raiders coach Gary Lembcke said, “they went at us, we missed some shots, we rushed things, we forgot to get back on defense, and they took advantage. All of those things added up.”