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Northview's defense, depth lead to victory over Lebanon
After dropping its first game of the girls high school basketball season, Northview rattled off its next six in a row, matching the program’s longest winning streak since 2017.
The Lady Knights have done so by averaging 53 points per game.
On Saturday against Lebanon, they fell one point shy of making it seven straight games in which they scored 50 or more.
They didn’t need to, though, as the defense the Knights played against a talented Tiger roster was as strong as it’s been through the first third of the year.
Northview held Lebanon to five points in the first half and then weathered the late flurry the visitors hit the Knights with in the second half to win 49-35 and extend their winning streak to seven games.
“We’re playing really good basketball right now,” said Northview head coach Zack Keyes. “As a group, we’ve decided that we’re going to guard. When you play defense like we’re playing right now, you’re going to beat teams. We’re just guarding right now. We gritted this one out.”
The lockdown defense was one of the key areas that led to the win, Keyes said afterwards.
Another area the Knights flourished Saturday evening? Players stepping up when their number was called.
In the first half, it was a pair of underclassmen in freshman Brynlee Clarke and sophomore Brooklyn Eldridge.
Neither one of them have played a lot of meaningful minutes for long stretches of time through the first seven games of the season, but on Saturday when Sydney Maurer and Hanna Dawson got into early foul trouble, Keyes went to pair of 5-foot-10 forwards off the bench.
They combined to shoot the ball once during their time on the floor for a total of zero points. That, however, didn’t tell the story of how important their minutes were as Eldridge recorded a game-high six rebounds and blocked a pair of shots while Clarke was instrumental in Northview’s perimeter defense. She also tallied three rebounds.
“They were ready,” said Keyes of Eldridge and Clarke. “Those are two kids that work extremely hard in practice. The game stuff has been hit and miss because we’ve been cautious with them. We didn’t want to put them in bad spots. They knew they were going to play today because of last night, but they got extra time because we got into foul trouble. They’re capable. They defend, they rebound and they’re effective in their spots on the offensive end.”
Maurer and Dawson spent the majority of the first half, and a big chunk of the third quarter as well, seated a few spots down from Keyes.
To begin the fourth quarter, though, the seventh-year coach inserted both back into the lineup, and the move paid off in a big way.
Maurer scored all eight of her points on a perfect 4-of-4 shooting night while Dawson added a pair of layups in the final frame to go along with five rebounds to help propel the hosts to victory.
“They were excellent,” said Keyes of Maurer and Dawson. “Syd and Hanna are two kids that we really lean on to defend and get rebounds. I’m just proud of them and proud of their effort. This was just two big wins for us this weekend.”
The two seniors, as well as junior Audri Spencer, contributed to the biggest run of the game, which came at the beginning of the fourth quarter.
Lebanon, behind the scoring of senior Alexis Wines who had a game-high 19 points, got to within five of Northview after going on a 6-0 run to close the third.
Northview answered with a 6-0 run itself on three consecutive layups from Maurer, Dawson and Spencer to take the wind out of the sails of the Tigers.
“The kids executed. The assistants had some ideas in their minds, and we utilized them in the fourth quarter. That was big. A little 6-0 run stretched things out far enough that I thought we were in pretty good shape,” Keyes said.
Macey Timberman led the Knights in scoring with her 17 points. Tara Pearce added nine on 3-of-6 shooting from 3-point range.
LEBANON (35) — Newsom 3-5 0-0 6, Wines 6-18 6-6 19, Barr 3-10 2-3 8, Ottinger 0-2 0-2 0, Sperry 1-3 0-3 2, Albea 0-0 0-0 0, Hiatt 0-0 0-0 0, Vanaman 0-1 0-2 0. TOTALS 13-39 FG, 8-16 FT, 35 TP.
NORTHVIEW (49) — Timberman 5-14 6-7 17, Pearce 3-6 0-0 9, Spencer 5-14 0-0 11, Maurer 4-4 0-0 8, H.Dawson 2-5 0-0 4, Clarke 0-0 0-0 0, Eldridge 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 19-43 FG, 6-7 FT, 49 TP.
Lebanon 3 2 15 15 – 35
Northview 10 4 11 24 – 49
3-point shooting — Lebanon 1-9 (Wines 1-8, Barr 0-1), Northview 5-13 (Timberman 1-4, Pearce 3-6, Spencer 1-3). Rebounds — Lebanon 23 (Barr 6, Newsom, Ottinger, Sperry 4), Northview 26 (Eldridge 6, Pearce, H.Dawson 5). Turnovers — Lebanon 14, Northview 14. Total fouls — Lebanon 12, Northview 14. Fouled out — none.
Next — Northview (7-1) visits South Vermillion Tuesday. Lebanon (2-4) visits Western Boone Friday.