
LEWISBURG – The Tri-County North girls’ basketball season got off to a slow start this year at 1-6 after falling to Twin Valley South 43-40 in the annual St Rt 503 battle. But since they have rattled off 7 straight wins over Bradford, Eaton, Preble Shawnee, Franklin Monroe, Dayton Christian, Dixie and Stivers to improve to 8-6 overall and 5-3 in WOAC league play.
In that stretch senior Nani Garcia has averaged nearly 21 points a game with a couple of big nights including a career high of 34 points and a school record for one game with 8 triples against Stivers and 29 points against Bradford.

Not only has Garcia picked up her game so has junior guard Bella Cherry who broke two school records for steals and assists in a career. The current record for assist in a career was 212 by Cassi Stinson and steals was 162 by Kindra Mullins. Cherry now has over 275 steals and counting.
Bella not only broke the steals career record she also has the single season record, and single game record by swiping 15 against Dayton Christian which also placed her in the OHSAA state record book for steals in a game.
Bella pulled off a rare feat a quad double in her last game against Stivers scoring 25 points, grabbing 11 rebounds, dishing 11 dimes and swiping the ball 11 times in their 76-52 win.

The Newton girls’ basketball team comes into the game with an 8-7 overall record and 4-4 in the WOAC. The Indians have been up and down this year and played well against two of the top teams in the conference falling to Arcanum 39-34 and Tri-Village 52-43 with both of those teams along with Mississinawa Valley tied for 1st place in the league.
The Indians are led by senior Felicity Harbour at 12 ppg, 8 rpg and 1st in the WOAC at 50.7% field goal shooting. Sophomore Rylee Hess averages 10 ppg, 6.5 rpg and 3.7 apg.
Both teams enter the game in the middle of the pack looking to gain some momentum down the stretch in the regular season and into post season.
The opening quarter was very competitive with two lead changes and two ties. North opened with a triple by senior Gracie Hemp and Newton countered on a free throw from Rylee Hess and a stick back offensive rebound by Felicity Harbour tying the game at three.
Rylee and Felicity would figure big into the final outcome as the game progressed.
Tri-County North responded in the quarter getting a triple and five points from Bella Cherry while Hess ended up with seven points and Harbour four to take a 13-10 lead at the end of the 1st quarter.

Both teams traded baskets for much of the 2nd quarter and deadlocked at 10 points with Newton still holding a 3-point advantage heading into the break.
Cherry and Jordan Pinion each had 4 points in the 2nd quarter with Hess and Harbour matching them for Newton who held a 23-20 halftime lead.
It was clear from the start the Lady Indians were going to make it tough on Cherry and Garcia. While Cherry did score 9 points in the first half, Garcia was held to just two and Newton wasn’t going to deviate from what was working in the 2nd half.
“So, coming in, our game plan was to try to limit the touches for Bella Cherry and Nani Garcia. Obviously, they are two tough guards, very talented, and I felt that if we could limit their touches and keep them from going off, that would give us a bigger chance to come out with the victory,” Newton coach Stefanie Landis said.
The Indians made a run to start the 3rd quarter going inside to Harbour right away, then got a bucket from Hess and from sophomore guard Mya Denlinger on a drive to the basket jumping ahead 29-20 for what was the biggest lead of the game at that time.
North responded with triples from Nani Garcia and Jordon Pinion to close the gap to 29-26 at 4:24 in the third quarter.
“They were face guarding Bella and Nani so we told them that anybody Felicity was guarding, you can’t try to get the ball to them, and we needed everyone to look to score with the way they were guarding us,” Tri-County North coach Jessica Spitler said.
However, they would turn it over three straight times doing just what coach said not to do and it would be the start of the big run by the Indians to turn the game in their favor.
In a blink of an eye the wheels came off the track for the Panthers going scoreless the remainder of the period while the Indians ran rough shod for 18 unanswered points creating a huge 45-26 double digit advantage to end the frame.
Coach Landis was pleased with how her team responded after challenging them to focus on the four keys they talk about before every game and reminded them at the break.
“For us, we’ve been stressing the same things all year, just executing, communicating, taking care of the ball while trying to control the boards and limit teams to one and out,” Landis stated.
“The girls really stepped up and had a fire lit under them, and I was very proud of the way they responded in the third quarter. They started moving better on the press break. They were passing the ball ahead and making better decisions, and we were starting to get the ball inside, which is where our strength is and that kind of opened some things up for us on the perimeter,” Landis explained.
Felicity Harbour scored 8 points, Rylee Hess 7, Mya Denlinger 5 and Layla VanCulin 2 in the third frame and defensively they held Cherry in check giving up just six points on defense.

For coach Spitler things couldn’t have gone worse in the 3rd quarter as she tried to challenge her team to overcome a very physical first half.
“I thought our girls looked a little timid, a little scared and I’m like, these are the kind of games you want to play in, you want to be in a hard-fought physical game,” Spitler commented.
In the final stanza Spitler kept pushing to attack the basket where they found success scoring but the deficit was too much to make up with just twos and free throws.
Cherry was successful getting to the charity stripe and ended the game as the high scorer for the Panthers with 19 points.

But it was all Newton as they finished the game strong for a 61-41 woac win.
They got a solid performance from Rylee Hess who led all scorers with 24 points. Felicity Harbour followed with 23 while pulling down a dozen rebounds along with numerous blocked or altered shots drawing praise from coach Landis.
“Felicity stepped up big time. She is capable of being a big-time performer if we can get her the ball, that’s kind of been the key all year, if we can we get her the ball she has been able to produce for us,” Landis complimented.

But for that to happen the rest of the team had to handle the full court pressure by Tri-County North which they were able to do and was another positive Landis saw in her young squad.
“All season, the games that we have lost, we were beaten by the press by not making good decisions. Once we get in scoring position, we either are not attacking or we’re not making smart decisions. But I was very proud of the patience we showed today by working the ball in the back court until we could get a pass ahead,” Stephanie described.
She was also quick to praise all five starters and her freshman coming off the bench.
“Our five starters all played so well, and I thought our freshman Brynn Fiely who came off the bench put in some really quality minutes for a team that’s kind of low on numbers. We don’t have a deep bench and I’m so proud of what they’ve been able to accomplish. You know, they’re all dead dog tired out there, but I have two words, “Dig Deep” you got to dig deep here, there’s no other option here. I’m just proud of the performance tonight, and I hope we can continue to build on this through the end of the season where it matters the most and heading into the tournament,” Landis concluded.

The Indians improve to 9-7 overall and 5-4 in WOAC. They will host Emmanuel Christian on Saturday at 12:30pm
For Tri-County North it was an end to a seven-game win streak but also a chance to learn and grow as well.
“We’re coming off a seven-game winning streak, which makes this loss hard, but I told them, sometimes you need a reality check. You got to figure out how to get through with the heart. Our last couple games we came out ahead with some big moments … but we didn’t’ get that today,” Spitler concluded.
The Panthers fell to 8-7 overall and 5-4 in the WOAC. They will host Belmont on Saturday at 12:30pm.
