Do you need a great equalizer in a game? Play it at Gainbridge Fieldhouse.
Is it the depth of the moment? Is it because some players and coaches rise up big for a state finals game while others shrink? Is it that you don’t really know how good you are until you face this always unknown opponent?
Norwell is the poster child right now of all bets being off once you reach the state finals. Last season, the Knights were senior heavy including arguably the best player in program history as well as another senior 1,000-plus point career scorer. It took coach Eric Thornton 27 years to get to the state finals while leading Norwell and it took one potential buzzer beater from Kennedy Fuelling falling out to end that first appearance. And it was in a game where Norwell was considered by many the favorite.
Norwell wasn’t getting back to the state finals. Plenty of pundits and doubters would have bet their house on such a fact. As good as Norwell has been all season, as stout as Vanessa Rosswurm’s scoring had been, as dominant as they were defensively at times, as good of a coach as Thornton is…well, Bounce didn’t have them going back to the state finals and certainly didn’t have then winning it over formerly unbeaten Greensburg.
But magic happens in Gainbridge Fieldhouse.
So much like Bishop Luers pulled off a shocking title win a year ago just hours before Norwell’s setback, it was Norwell’s turn to surprise many and capture a title…but just before Warsaw fell, in a pretty shocking manner, to Lawrence North in the Class 4A title game. Vindication for Norwell, a weird bit of irony for Warsaw.
The Knights kept Greenburg on their heels from tip to final buzzer on Saturday. Greensburg was a 21-5 team a year ago before a Regional loss ended their hopes. This season, things all seemed to come up green for the Pirates as they outscored opponents by almost 30 points per game on average. They opened up the season with a 48 point win and last weekend, got by Roncalli by 13. It is no error though in reality that Norwell got back to Gainbridge no matter how unlikely it was to those outside of the program. Thornton has long took on a pretty grueling schedule and this year was no different; Norwell was prepared to take some non-conference bumps to prepare them and those six losses they took certainly did.
Norwell started the season 3-3 not because of a lack of talent or a rebuild. They lost three in November because Warsaw, Homestead and Northridge were hard teams to play at Homestead and Northridge were hard place to play. The Knights went to Noblesville right after Christmas for a four-team tournament and lets not pretend that the NE8 wasn’t a gauntlet yet again. That means Norwell didn’t win the NE8 with losses to rivals Columbia City and Bellmont, but they sure got those losses back on the way to Gainbridge, beating Bellmont in the Sectional final and Columbia City last Saturday night to win their way back to Indianapolis.
Norwell was high volume in the first quarter, shooting seven more shots than Greensburg, despite holding just a one point edge after one. Norwell led by seven in the second quarter as their defense got smothering and forced many Greensburg turnovers, but a late 9-0 run before the half from the Pirates sent the game to halftime tied at 24. But, as it turns out, 9-0 runs go both ways; as the teams traded blows to start the third, it was Norwell’s 9-0 run started by a Vanessa Rosswurm and-one, that turned the game into one where Greensburg was playing chase. Also during that run, Norwell got a Macie Saalfrank three and then a Jada Dale and-one; Norwell led 39-33 after three and never trailed again.
They never trailed, yes because of Rosswurm and her team high 17 points, but also because of a tremendous outing from Addison Norris, who scored 16 points and had seven rebounds for Norwell.
Greensburg got it down to six, but it was never a game in the fourth that you felt Norwell was going to lose. Something was just going to be different this time and it was as Norwell won 53-44 over Greensburg. One team had 0 losses, one team had 6…but the equalizer of a state finals reared its head.
That same equalizer shocked many of us in the night cap.
Warsaw lost just once all season, had one of the best offenses and defenses in the state statistically and Lawrence North was a surprise finalist. Warsaw won the very first girls basketball state title in 1976 and with this being the 50th anniversary season of the state finals, it was like a storybook situation. But as all of those experts and old heads will tell you, that is why you play the game.
The Wildcats didn’t care about storybook endings, at least not that one. They opened up with a 9-4 lead and kept the heavy shooting Tigers away from the three point line for almost five minutes before the state’s best sniper, Brooke Zartman, hit the first Warsaw triple. It was the start of the first momentum run for Warsaw as their defense them helped Lawrence North miss five straight shots after a hot start. Warsaw led 17-16 for the first time in the game and Brooke Winchester’s domination down the first quarter stretch helped the Tigers lead after one. A pair of three pointers for the Wildcats helped propel Lawrence North however to an eight-point halftime lead.
It was certainly a half of emotion and a lot of back and forth for Warsaw to deal with. They got down, they got up, they got down, Lawrence North surprisingly was handling them on the glass, leading to 11 second chance points in the first half. Meanwhile, Warsaw had nine less halftime rebounds and Winchester was the only Tiger with multiple made shots in the first 16 minutes. Being held to 27 points at halftime was new too for a team who averages over 70 per game while the 35 points Lawrence North scored in the first half was more than 10 different Warsaw opponents scored during the regular season.
Something about that Gainbridge Fieldhouse and its great equalizer properties.
Lawrence North led 52-37 after three quarters. But this is Warsaw we are talking about right? While Norwell seemed to have things wrapped up in their final quarter hours earlier, it would be hard to say as an onlooker that Bounce ever felt like Warsaw was done.
And of course, the rose up. Zartman and Abbey Peterson (the eventual Mental Attitude Award winner for Class 4A) hit a pair of three pointers cut it to nine and then a short time later it was Zartman and Alexis Neely hitting and all of the sudden, Warsaw trailed by just seven with six minutes to play. There is a high chance that things got tense if you were in Wildcat colors. That probably never really ended for the eventual state champions, especially after Joslyn Bricker’s free throw with 32 seconds left but the Lawrence North lead to three.
But you already know how this story ends. Warsaw couldn’t fight all of the way back and lost 65-59.
Winchester had a co-game high 20 points to go with 13 rebounds while Bricker added 13 points and Zartman scored 12, all off three point makes.
The game was crushing for Warsaw, despite the fact that they never gave up and allowed themselves a chance to win at the end. It was very reminiscent of Norwell’s own state finals appearance a season ago. Things look up for Warsaw, they have a lot of their talent back next season and maybe their story ends the same way that Norwell’s did. That has to be a silver lining, even if it doesn’t mean much in Tiger Country right now or for a while.
The Tigers did make things interesting at Gainbridge Fieldhouse, even if the celebration wasn’t happening like it did for Norwell in Indy and their entire trip back to Wells County and then after they all got home. Norwell and Warsaw are a tale of two different teams, with two different paths and two different external expectations on March 1. That is what the magic of the state finals is about, not just the pursuit but what happens when you step onto the home court of the Indiana Pacers, Fever and Mad Ants.
Bounce, for one, can’t wait to see what next season’s state title game run and day of experience brings to the entire state, but especially to Northeast Indiana and dare I say maybe for Norwell and Warsaw yet again.
These opinions represent those of Bounce and Outside the Huddle. No opinions expressed on Outside the Huddle represent those of any of our advertisers. Follow Bounce on Twitter at Bounce_OTH
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