Following a sluggish first half which saw Northwood struggle to put 16 points on the scoreboard, the Lady Chargers finally managed to open up a double-digit advantage over cold-shooting Cedar Ridge at the start of the fourth quarter and went on to hand the Lady Fighting Red Wolves a 39-26 Big Eight 3A Conference setback Friday evening in Lewis Norwood Gymnasium.
Improving to 20-3 all-time against Cedar Ridge while defeating the Lady Wolves for the tenth time in their last 11 meetings, Northwood raised its record to 9-7 overall and 3-3 in the league standings, whereas the visitors from Hillsborough stumbled to 5-11 for the year and 3-4 in the conference.
Jyreah Smith fired in a trio of three-pointers to lead the Lady Chargers with a game-high 10 points as Northwood shot 40% (12-of-30) from the floor while committing 19 turnovers.
Madison Wardlow topped Cedar Ridge with nine points as the Lady Wolves connected on just 18% (nine-of-51) of their field goal attempts and held a slim 27-25 advantage on the boards while turning the ball over 17 times.
A pair of Wardlow free throws with 4:11 left in the initial period gave Cedar Ridge its only lead at 5-3 before two Rae McClarty foul shots and Caitlyn Bailey’s layup put the Lady Chargers ahead 7-5 after one quarter.
Northwood proceeded to extend its advantage to 14-7 on Smith’s trey from the left wing with 5:26 remaining in the second stanza prior to the Lady Wolves battling back to close the gap to 16-12 at halftime.
After the Lady Chargers stretched their lead to 23-14 following a Chandler Adams charity toss with 4:32 to go in the third period, Cedar Ridge used free throws by Tori Dalehite and Wardlow plus a Wardlow jumper in the lane to narrow the difference to four before McKenna Snively’s three-pointer from the left corner with 50.4 seconds remaining in the frame sent Northwood into the final eight minutes with a 26-19 advantage.
McClarty’s jumper from the right wing and two Myla Marve foul shots to begin the fourth quarter quickly elevated the Lady Chargers’ lead to 11, and they would go on to manufacture their biggest advantage of the night at 38-24 on a Smith free throw with 2:03 left in the contest.
CR 5 7 7 7 – 26
NW 7 9 10 13 – 39
Cedar Ridge (5-11, 3-4): Dalehite 3 2-2 8 Oswald 1 1-2 3 Nichols 0 1-4 1 Garay 2 1-2 5 Wardlow 3 3-4 9 Lloyd 0 0-1 0 Walton 0 0-0 0 Needham 0 0-0 0 PSmith 0 0-0 0 Stutzer 0 0-0 0 Carbajal 0 0-0 0. Totals 9 8-15 26.
Northwood (9-7, 3-3): Harris 1 0-0 2 Snively 1 0-2 3 Adams 2 3-7 7 Marve 1 2-4 5 JSmith 3 1-2 10 Hill 1 0-3 2 McClarty 1 2-2 4 Forbes 0 0-0 0 Bell 0 1-4 1 Bailey 2 1-2 5 McKnaught 0 0-0 0 Kanapkey 0 0-0 0. Totals 12 10-26 39. Halftime-Northwood, 16-12. Three-point goals-Cedar Ridge 0-8 (Dalehite 0-1, Walton 0-1, Oswald 0-2, Wardlow 0-4); Northwood 5-15 (JSmith 3-5, Snively 1-2, Marve 1-4, Bell 0-2, McClarty 0-2).
Fouled out: Garay.
Rebounds: Cedar Ridge 27 (Garay 7); Northwood 25 (JSmith, Hill 6).
Turnovers: Cedar Ridge 17; Northwood 19. T
otal fouls: Cedar Ridge 20; Northwood 13.