No. Heights boys jump out to big lead, go on to rout Herington, 86-45
Ken Easthouse
Saturday, February 17, 2007
ALLEN — Northern Heights used a 12-0 run in the first quarter to set the pace against Herington in its 86-45 victory Friday night.
Forward Rick Hobson scored eight of his game-high 17 points during the first-quarter run, which put the Wildcats up, 20-7, at the end of the first period.
“We knew they were a decent team,” Hobson said. “We knew we had to come out and jump out in the beginning.”
Northern Heights continued its transition offense, scoring nearly at will whenever it would get into transition.
“If you let a team get its defense set up, they’re going to make you work,” Northern Heights coach Lanny Massey said. “If you get it up the court and into the heart of the defense before they’re sitting and waiting on you, it makes it a lot easier to score layups.”
Herington coach Tony Hoops said he was disappointed in his team’s outing.
“To put it bluntly, I’m embarrassed by our performance,” Hoops said. “That is not the quality of basketball we’ve played all year.”
Hoops said his team prepared for the Heights’ transition offense, but nothing seemed to slow the Wildcats down.
“We didn’t do a good job of transition defense tonight, and I don’t know why,” Hoops said. “We were prepared for it and we knew they would push it.”
Five different players scored in double digits for Northern Heights.
Massey said it was the right time for his team to be hitting its stride.
“We’re starting to churn it up, which is what we want around sub-state time,” Massey said.
Herington girls 54, Northern Heights 50
Herington let an 11-point lead disappear but managed to hang on in a 54-50 victory over Northern Heights Friday night.
The Lady Railers led, 35-24, at halftime but saw that lead evaporate in the third quarter when the Lady Wildcats went on an 11-2 run.
“(In the) second half, we pretty much came out and played,” Northern Heights coach Tim Riemann said.
Herington coach Jayson Emig said the third quarter could be chalked up to inexperience, but said that should change soon.
“Our youth still lets us down a quarter,” Emig said. “We always have a quarter where we just get off track and we let the other team back in. I don’t want to use that as an excuse any more.”
Northern Heights’ Kiley Stinson tied the game at 41 with a 3-pointer in the fourth quarter before Herington went on a 9-1 run to put the game out of reach.
The game was extremely aggressive, with the teams combining for 50 fouls and three Heights players fouling out. While not the intention, Emig said the physical play benefited his team.
“There are four games this year that I thought we should have won,” Emig said. “In all four of those games, we didn’t get to the foul line.”
Riemann said part of the fouls could be attributed to exhaustion. Heights played a game Thursday night, and he said the team could still be feeling worn from that game.
“I think we may have been a little tired from last night because we just weren’t moving our feet as fast as we can,” Riemann said. “We were being a little lazy on defense.”
Kristin Kleinschmidt led the Lady Railers with 20 points.
Chanell Makovec added 17 points and also contributed several steals in the game, snapping up nearly any pass Northern Heights attempted to make over her head.
“She’s always done a very good job of making sure her hands are in the passing lanes,” Emig said.
NORTHERN HEIGHTS 86, HERINGTON boys 45
Herington 7 22 12 4 — 45
Northern Heights 20 24 27 15 — 86
Herington — Miller 13, Mitchell 10, Barnes 8, Darwin 2, Mueller 10, Richardson 2.
Northern Heights — Glass 10, Roeder 9, Swanson 2, Neidfeldt 5, Weakley 14, Hizar 3, H. Parks 15, D. Parks 1, Hobson 17, Heins 10.
Halftime — Heights 44-29. Total Fouls — Herington 13, Heights 20. Fouled Out — None.
HERINGTON girls 54, NORTHERN HEIGHTS 50
Herington 18 17 2 17 — 54
Northern Heights 13 11 11 15 — 50
Herington — Makovec 17, Brockmeier 12, Perry 5, Kleinschmidt 20.
Northern Heights — Lee 5, Siess 10, Miller 3, A. Boline 6, Stinson 13, DeLong 5, S. Boline 6, Dreier 2.
Halftime — Herington 35-24. Total fouls — Herington 20, Heights 30. Fouled out — NH: Siess, DeLong, S. Boline.