PITTSBORO — One thing you can say about the Northwood girls basketball program and its veteran coach Cameron Vernon is that they won’t back down from playing a tough non-conference schedule.
That remained true Friday night in Pittsboro as the Lady Chargers entertained 4A Wakefield High School out of Raleigh. Despite a gutsy effort, Northwood dropped a hard-fought 51-38 decision to the visitors from Wake County to fall to 2-3 on the season.
Vernon felt his club did some good things but in the end poor shooting from behind the arc and turnovers led to the Chargers downfall.
“Another tough non-conference opponent that we just couldn’t overcome their pressure on the defensive end,” said Vernon. “Looking over the stats we shot two point field goals well at 50 percent (11-22), we rebounded well and shot well from the foul line at 72 percent (13-18). However we struggled from three at 10 percent (1-10) and had too many turnovers.”
Despite four points from Natalie Bell in the opening period the Chargers couldn’t throw the ball in the ocean. Fortunately the Wolverines weren’t much better as Elise Williams scored all eight of the Wakefield points to give the visitors an 8-5 advantage after one period of play.
The next eight minutes proved to tell the tale of the contest as Wakefield owned the second quarter to the tune of a 19-10 advantage to improve its lead to 27-15 at the intermission. Kasey Lund canned a trio of treys for nine points in the stanza for the Wolverines while Williams chipped in a three-pointer, and Amirah Allen four points.
Freshman Tekeyah Bland netted five points in the second for Northwood.
“We really struggled with their half court defensive pressure and just threw the ball away so many times especially in the second quarter,” Vernon said. “It is a recurring theme in our three losses and we have got to do a better of mimicking the pressure we are facing in practice and making our teammates better. But this game will definitely help us down the road.”
Bland would added six points in the third for Northwood and Caitlin Bailey three more as the Chargers outscored the Wolverines 11-10 in the third period to close the gap to 37-26 entering the fourth. Williams had four for Wakefield to keep the lead at double-digits throughout.
The Lady Chargers simply could not hit the open treys in the contest including the final frame as the Wolverines used a 14-12 run in the quarter to close out the 51-38 triumph. Williams had five more for Wakefield to close the contest with a game-high 20 while McKenna Blanton added four more in the fourth.
Bailey had five points for Northwood in the final stanza while McKenna Snively canned the lone trey out of 10 attempts for the locals in the period.
Bland would close with 13 points and eight rebounds for Northwood while Bailey added eight points and eight boards, and Jyreah Smith and Gianna McManaman three assists apiece.
“I thought Tekeyah Bland really had a nice game inside and Caitlin Bailey exemplified some toughness tonight scoring 8 and getting 8 rebounds,” Vernon said. “We will regroup and get ready for next week with a three game schedule and opening up conference with Northern Durham on Tuesday.”
Lund added nine points in the win for Wakefield.