Each Sunday, yours truly will take a look at some of the bigger stories and important notes of the week with a wrap up column.
So what can we take away from week two now that more teams have tipped off their season?
STOUT AS A PLAYER, STOUT AS A TEAM
Isabella Stout has picked up right where she left off last season and it has Bluffton as one of the area’s most intriguing teams this early, early part of the season. The Tigers decimated Northfield on Tuesday and got scoring from eight players while also pulling down 42 rebounds as a team. Chloe Dick scored 21, Maryn Schreiber pulled down 10 rebounds, but at the top was again Stout.
She led Bluffton with 23 points in their Tuesday win. It was the worst of her first two outings of the season after scoring 25 on opening week. But Stout continues to shoot the ball extremely well and through two games was averaging six rebounds and 2.5 steals per game.
Then came Saturday and a more high profile matchup with the burgeoning East Noble Knights.
While Stout, the player, scored 20 points to lead Bluffton and the Tigers had a 27-26 lead heading into halftime. But East Noble proved more stout as a team on Saturday. See what I did there? It was a big win for the Knights, who are 3-0 to start for the second straight season.
While East Noble turned it over way too much, they battled back and pulled ahead with solid shooting including going 51 percent from the field, 38 percent from three and 94 percent (16-17) from the free throw line, led by a 12-of-12 performance from Averi Amstutz as part of her 24 point effort, while Rian David added 12 points.
Defensively, East Noble was able to hold Bluffton to 1-18 shooting from three point range. And while the Knights gave up 16 offensive rebounds, they ended up winning that battle 25-24 after being outrebounded by 10 last season against Bluffton.
DEKALB STARTING STRONG
The Barons are 3-0 for the third season in a row after this week’s win over North Side. That marks good things for DeKalb coach Noah Stuckey, now in his fifth season with the program.
Stuckey has done things right at DeKalb and they have seen the natural progression to match that uptick. He was just 3-20 his first season and now in his fifth, he has matched that win total already by mid-November. From 3 to 9 to 12 to 14, it looks like the Barons may continue to trend upward fast as they prepare for a November 22 game against county rival Garrett after eight days between games.
North Side raced out to an early lead and went into halftime up 26-17. The Legends extended their lead to 31-18 in third quarter, when DeKalb went on 23-0 run to go up 41-31, ultimately extending the lead to 18 points before winning by 14.
Ashley Cox was an absolute menace with 23 points on 8-of-18 shooting and 86 percent from the free throw line. She also tallied 12 rebounds and flirted with a triple double by nabbing seven steals. Cox’s 17 points in the third quarter are the third most points scored by a DeKalb girls player in a quarter ever. Also during the game, Cox surpassed 1,000 points for her career making her the fifth Baron girls player to do so. With her seven steals in the game, Cox surpassed Machelle Joseph for the program’s all-time steals record, which was set in 1988.
Abbie Harris added 17 points and three steals of her own against North Side on Tuesday with Grace Pfister scoring 12. Harris is averaging 15.3 points through three games while Pfister now has back-to-back double digit scoring games.
EARLY SAC UPSET
Concordia‘s win over Northrop on Friday could end up being one of the most defining wins of November for any team when you factor in potential SAC implications.
Alivia Bolinger was exceptional for the Cadets in the game and got rave reviews from many of Bounce’s area coaching friends after the performance. She scored 23 points and hit 8 of her 10 free throws in the win. In the second quarter, Bolinger had seven points including hitting her third three pointer of the game.
The balanced 18 point effort of Cella Kaiser was huge too as she joined Bolinger as the only player to put up points for Concordia in every quarter.
It means that Northrop joins Bishop Dwenger and Wayne as teams in the conference with a SAC loss. And with the Bruins expected to be one of the teams challenging Homestead, this changes things significantly in theory. One loss could lose you the SAC this season and two absolutely will so the Bruins are up against that. Concordia had lost three straight to the Bruins and were 5-5 in the last ten opposite Northrop before Saturday’s upset.
For what its worth, Northrop is still a super dangerous team. Swynn Jackson had 21 in the loss and Khala Williams-Thomas added 16; the team is also still without Miley Wareing. So Northrop could still very well factor into this SAC if things swing certain ways.
SHOUTOUT TO HAMILTON
A quick little shoutout to the ladies of Hamilton‘s varsity team, getting a 46-42 win on Saturday over Canterbury.
The win marks Hamilton’s first of the season and marks the fourth straight season getting in the win column. Before those four years, the team spent two seasons a combined 0-11 with little varsity opportunity or success.
The little wins are important for a program that hasn’t had consistency so congrats to first year head coach Kris Tadsen. Abbi Dager had 17 points for the Marines while Teigan Freed added 15, all from the free throw line, for Hamilton.
OTHER NOTES
On Tuesday, Columbia City beat West Noble 54-7 after leading 36-0 at halftime. It is the least amount of points given up during coach Amy Shearer‘s time with the Eagles, surpassing the 14 Columbia City held New Haven two twice in 2022….West Noble‘s 7 points Tuesday was the least amount of points scored in a West Noble game since they beat Hamilton 104-6 just three and a half years ago….Add Emma Coffman of Garrett as a freshman to know; she scored 16 points, had 5 assists and 4 steals in her debut with the Railroaders Tuesday in a win over Heritage, playing all but 59 seconds. On Saturday, she added 18 points in a loss to Woodlan….Another freshman to know is Bellmont‘s Ashley Bleke, who had 19 in a win Tuesday over Concordia….Lakeland beat Goshen Tuesday night 36-22; it was the first win for them over Goshen this century (previously 16-0)….In Lakeland‘s win, Zoey Bowman‘s 15 rebounds tied for 5th in a single game in program history; Cara Schackow moved into 5th on the all-time blocks list for the Lakers….Addison Norris hit four threes (4-of-7) Tuesday in Norwell‘s win over Northrop….Central Noble shot 34 free throws in Tuesday loss to Whitko….Grace Scharlach‘s 24 points for Fremont Tuesday in a win over Lakewood Park was a career high….Hallie Schwieterman of Jay County also scored a career Tuesday with 27 points in a win over South Side.
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