|
|
|
Nodaway-Holt head coach Terry Petersen moaned and groaned on the sidelines almost the entire night as he watched his team drudge through one of its most lackluster offensive performances of the season.
He could laugh about it afterwards because the Trojans found a way to escape with a 43-40 road win over Northeast Nodaway Thursday night.
A game that was defined by sloppy ball-handling and poor shooting both ways wasn't decided until 1.8 seconds remained when Northeast Nodaway's Kevin Stoll missed the first two of three free throw attempts that would've tied the game.
"It was just kind of one of those nights offensively," said Petersen. "We just struggled in almost every aspect of the game."
The first half was especially unkind to the Trojans.
Nodaway-Holt went almost six minutes without a point and didn't connect on its first field goal until 1:29 remained in the first quarter.
The Trojans scored just four quarter points and ended the first half with 13.
Fortunately, the Trojans were disruptive enough with their full court pressure to be down only three points.
"We were kind of droopy with 13 points after 16 minutes," said Petersen. "I'm not so sure we didn't have more fouls than points in the first half. But I told them, 'hey, you held them to 16 points. You play defense like that again in the second half and you're going to give yourself a chance to win. We had a few glitches with our press, but otherwise, I thought defensively, we did a pretty good job. That was the difference between us winning and losing."
The Trojans weren't quite as effective defensively in the second half, but their offense experienced a significant uptick.
Nodaway-Holt nearly matched its first half total in the third quarter with 12 points and took its first lead at the 2:07 mark.
The Trojans followed with an 18-point fourth quarter that began with them down 26-25.
"I thought we slowly but surely got going a little bit," said Petersen.
Senior guard Zach Lemar was the catalyst for the the Trojans down the stretch. He had eight of his 12 points in the fourth quarter and dropped a nice assist to Jackson Beattie on the baseline.
Lemar gave the Trojans the lead for good with a three-pointer to make it 33-32 with 5:10 left.
He made an ever bigger play with 1:30 left, picking the pocket of an NEN ball-handler in the backourt and making the layup for a 41-38 lead.
Nodaway-Holt head coach Terry Petersen moaned and groaned on the sidelines almost the entire night as he watched his team drudge through one of its most lackluster offensive performances of the season.
He could laugh about it afterwards because the Trojans found a way to escape with a 43-40 road win over Northeast Nodaway Thursday night.
A game that was defined by sloppy ball-handling and poor shooting both ways wasn't decided until 1.8 seconds remained when Northeast Nodaway's Kevin Stoll missed the first two of three free throw attempts that would've tied the game.
"It was just kind of one of those nights offensively," said Petersen. "We just struggled in almost every aspect of the game."
The first half was especially unkind to the Trojans.
Nodaway-Holt went almost six minutes without a point and didn't connect on its first field goal until 1:29 remained in the first quarter.
The Trojans scored just four quarter points and ended the first half with 13.
Fortunately, the Trojans were disruptive enough with their full court pressure to be down only three points.
"We were kind of droopy with 13 points after 16 minutes," said Petersen. "I'm not so sure we didn't have more fouls than points in the first half. But I told them, 'hey, you held them to 16 points. You play defense like that again in the second half and you're going to give yourself a chance to win. We had a few glitches with our press, but otherwise, I thought defensively, we did a pretty good job. That was the difference between us winning and losing."
The Trojans weren't quite as effective defensively in the second half, but their offense experienced a significant uptick.
Nodaway-Holt nearly matched its first half total in the third quarter with 12 points and took its first lead at the 2:07 mark.
The Trojans followed with an 18-point fourth quarter that began with them down 26-25.
"I thought we slowly but surely got going a little bit," said Petersen.
Senior guard Zach Lemar was the catalyst for the the Trojans down the stretch. He had eight of his 12 points in the fourth quarter and dropped a nice assist to Jackson Beattie on the baseline.
Lemar gave the Trojans the lead for good with a three-pointer to make it 33-32 with 5:10 left.
He made an ever bigger play with 1:30 left, picking the pocket of an NEN ball-handler in the backourt and making the layup for a 41-38 lead.
"I just got done telling him that he made the plays we had to have at crunch time and that's his role," said Petersen. "We look to him to have to do that and he did make the big plays for us."
The Trojans, whose largest lead was five points in the third quarter, went ahead 42-38 on a free throw by Brandon Saxton.
NEN’s Joel Scroggie cut it two with a bank shot at the other end.
Lemar split a pair of free throws with 21.1 seconds left that put the Trojans ahead 43-40.
The Jays called timeout with 10.6 seconds left to set up a final play. Patton came off a double screen on the baseline and dished to Stoll for a corner three.
He was fouled by Saxton, sending him to the line for three free throws.
Patton clanged the first two off the iron, forcing him to miss the third on purpose.
NEN forced a jump on the rebound, but the possession favored Nodaway-Holt.
The Trojans needed only to inbound it to secure the victory.
"We told our kids going out 'for heaven sakes don't foul,'" said Petersen. "Don't give them the three and don't foul. We were lucky he missed that first one. That was kind of it right there."
Stoll led the Jays with 12 points and Patton had 11.
Nodaway-Holt had seven others score in single-digits led by Lemon with nine points and Saxton with six.
The Trojans have a crucial conference showdown with Mound City tonight that will determine their fate in the 275 Conference race.
With one conference loss already, another one would take them out of contention.
"If we hope to have any kind of a piece of the conference title—and the kids know it—we have to win," said Petersen.
