Norwell girls’ basketball went 2-0 this week and improved their record to 9-2. This past week they played two teams that were unbeaten. The Knights knocked off both of those teams. They are currently ranked 14th in the IBCA poll. They are the latest Summit City Sports’ Team of the Week.
The Knights started the week by beating Eastbrook 68-38. They handed the Panthers their first loss of the season. Shooting guard Kennedy Fuelling scored 34 points and made eight three-pointers, one of the best three-point shooting performances of her high school career.
“That was Kennedy’s second most three’s made in a game. Last year she had eleven against Concordia, this was eight against Eastbrook,” head coach Eric Thornton said. “We needed that. Eastbrook is a very, very good team. And to be able to hit shots like that and get us out in a lead is really important. [That was the] first undefeated team that we played during the week, and it was a very good win.”
While she had a great performance, Fuelling largely credited her teammates and coaches for her success.
“I can’t get those shots without our plays and my teammates setting screens and executing plays, so that was huge,” Fuelling said.
After that, Norwell played again on Friday night. They went on the road to take on Northeast 8 Conference Rival Columbia City. The Eagles came into that game as the #1 ranked team in the state. The final score was 45-44. Guard Makenzie Fuess led the Knights with four steals, and Norwell held Columbia City to 30% from the field and 15% shooting from three. Fuess and Fuelling both scored in double-figures. Fuess scored 18 points, and Fuelling added 14.
“It was such a great game for us. We all went in there knowing we wanted to win,” Fuess said. “That’s been a big rivalry always growing up. And we just went in, played our best, and we got it done.”
With the win, Norwell snaps a two-year losing streak to Columbia City.
“We talked about getting off to a better start in that game than we have the last couple years,” Thornton said. “I thought that if we could get to that end of the first quarter and feel that way, that we’d have a lot of confidence that we could get it done. That was the biggest thing, I think, about that game, was our start.”
Defensively, Norwell held both Eastbrook (38) and Columbia City (44) to season-low point totals. In the Eastbrook game, the Knights came up with 14 steals.
“Our defense is our number one thing. That’s what we want to play off of,” Thornton said. “We want to be known for that. We want to have that mentality of being difficult to score against. We can score a lot off of our defense. We did that against Eastbrook. We didn’t really score as much off of our defense against Columbia City, they’re just so good, and we just wanted to be tough to play against that night. So we’ll continue to be a defensive first team.”
“Coach really emphasizes playing defense because that leads to offense and just working hard on defense, getting those steals or deflections is very important for us to get offensive shots,” Fuess said.
Back in mid-November, the Knights lost back-to-back home games to Northridge and Homestead to fall to 2-2 on the season. As of November 17th, however, they are on a seven-game winning streak. That started with a three-game road trip which included wins against Blackhawk Christian and Oak Hill, both of which are 7-4.
“We just knew we had to put four quarters together, and just play a lot better [in areas such as] rebounding and just be more efficient,” Fuess said.
Norwell’s next game is tomorrow night against Woodlan. The Warriors are 6-4. They are coming off back-to-back losses, but that included an overtime game against Lakewood Park and a three-point loss to Bluffton.
“They’ve had a nice season, [they are] 6-4 right now. They’ve played a good schedule as well,” Thornton said. “They’ve got some really nice pieces. They’re long. They’ve got height. I think that presents challenges for us, so we’ve got to try to dictate things to our pace. We want to get the game moving fast and be very disruptive, and I think if we can do that, hopefully we can have some success.”
