PITTSBORO — The Northwood girls basketball team rolled into the 2019 Charger Classic finals with a pair of opening round tournament victories last week.
On Friday evening in the opener, Northwood (8-3) cruised past 4A Wake Forest 51-39 behind 18 points from Natalie Bell.
McKenna Snively added 13 points in the win and Rae McClarty 11 more for the Chargers.
“Natalie Bell, McKenna Snively and Rae McClarty really did a nice job from the guard position tonight,” said NW coach Cameron Vernon. “We struggled inside and they were able to give us some offensive firepower to compensate.”
Vernon was pleased overall with the performance of his Chargers coming off a holiday break.
“Good win and it was a difficult game for us out of the holiday break,” Vernon said. “We weren’t as crisp and as focused as I would have liked, but the break will do that. Wake Forest was long and gave us some problems, but in the end we were able to execute and finish which was the difference. We have to do a better job of coming in to the game focused and ready to play because going against Apex in round 2 will be a difficult task for us, and I am looking forward to seeing how we come out and play.”
Behind six points from Bell and Snively and three more from McClarty, Northwood bolted to a 15-11 advantage after one period in the books. Amina Miles and Megan Wimmer tallied four apiece for the Cougars in the stanza.
Northwood blew the game open in the second with an 18-11 surge to push the lead to 33-22 at the intermission. Bell had seven points in the stanza while McClarty added five, and Snively four. Miles countered with five for Wake Forest (2-8) while Shayla Rodriguez chipped in four.
In the third period, the Lady Chargers bogged down offensively and the Cougars came back with a 10-5 run sparked by three points from Miles which closed Apex to within 38-32 entering the fourth and final period.
Northwood would use four points from Caitlin Bailey in the final eight minutes of action to ignite a 13-7 spurt by the Chargers which sealed the 51-39 win.
McClarty added five assists and Snively four steals in the victory while Miles led Wake Forest with 14 points.
On Saturday night in second round action against Apex, Northwood won the middle quarters to stroll past the Cougars 51-38.
Snively paced the Lady Chargers with 14 points while Tekeyah Bland and Bailey chipped in 10 apiece, and McClarty added nine.
“Really big win, the (Savannah) Coffel girl is a real presence inside at about 6’3’’ and she gave us some issues,” Vernon pointed out. “We really wanted to limit her touches and it helped by getting her in foul trouble in the first half, and we really capitalized when Coffel went to the bench and you see that by us outscoring them 19-8 in the second. We were very into this game and much more focused. I love the scoring distribution (Snively 14, Bland 10, Bailey 10, McClarty 9).”
Vernon continued the praise with the team play his squad exhibited.
“We have always stressed team basketball in the program and it’s hard to plan for a team that has distribution like that. I thought Snively and McClarty really played well at the guard positions and our inside game picked up with Bland and Bailey. That’s a career high in points form Caitlin and I was super proud of the way she played and Tekeyah really bounced back from an off night and exhibited great effort on both ends of the floor. Big win but we have an even bigger game Monday versus a very good Apex Friendship team.”
Bland had eight points in the opening period to counter five by Cofel and four from Hayden Tarpey as the Cougars led by a 13-11 count after one period of play.
With Cofel in foul trouble in the second frame, Northwood used the 19-8 run to take a 30-21 advantage at the break. Snively had seven points and Bailey and McClarty four apiece for the Chargers while Cofel collected four for the Cougars in limited minutes.
The Northwood defense turned tenacious in the third, limiting Apex to seven points, four by Cofel, while scoring 13 to go up 43-28 heading into the fourth. Snively canned a huge trey on the way to five points for the Chargers in the third while Bailey and Bell chipped in four and three respectively.
McClarty would tally four points in the fourth as the locals went on to claim the 51-38 victory. Coffel and Tarpey had four points for the Cougars in the final period.
Coffel closed with 16 points and Tarpey nine in the loss for Apex (4-9).