Northview, ND capture sectional titles
Wildcats edge Southview in 2 OTs
2/23/2014
Northview’s Maddie Cole and Southview’s Maria Pappas chase a loose ball during a Division I girls basketball sectional final.
THE BLADE/LORI KING
Buy This Image
Northview’s Maddie Cole and Southview’s Maria Pappas chase a loose ball during a Division I girls basketball sectional final.
Northview trailed rival Southview by as much as a 12 points in the first half of a Division I girls baskeball sectional final Saturday night at Central Catholic.
But the Wildcats erased the deficit and outlasted the Cougars for a 45-42 win in two overtimes.
Kendall McCoy pumped in a 15 points and Maddie Cole delivered 10 for Northview (18-6), which scored all of its points in the second overtime at the foul line.
Northview will face Notre Dame on Thursday in a district semifinal at Central. The Eagles defeated Springfield 49-33 in the first sectional final.
"Every single time we play [Southview], these kids play hard," Northview first-year coach Brittaney Cymbolin said. "You can't take anything away from Southview. Those kids play so hard. Honestly, they're one of the toughest teams to play because they put everything on the line. I'm just so proud of the way our kids put forth that extra effort tonight."
PHOTO GALLERies:
The Cougars (17-8) took a 22-12 lead into halftime and appeared to have the game going in their direction. But the Wildcats outscored the Cougars 17-6 in the third quarter.
Northview took a 29-28 lead into the fourth quarter after Kendall Jessing (nine points) drained a 3-pointer with just over a second left in the third quarter.
"It's one of those situations where I'm sure she (Cymbolin) is proud of her kids for getting the win," Southview coach Tim Nottke said. "I'm extremely proud of our kids. They worked extremely hard and fought the entire time.
"Give them credit because they made some plays at the end which really made a difference."
The game went into overtime tied at 35 after Southview had possession with 26 seconds remaining, but failed to get a shot off before the final buzzer.
Notre Dame’s Kaayla McIntyre steals the ball from Springfield defenders during a sectional final at Central Catholic High School.
Southview's Taryn Stanley poured in a 20 points, including four 3-pointers. Stanley sent the game into the second OT when she swished a deep 3-pointer to tie it at 40 with less than five seconds remaining in the first extra session.
Jayda Worthy led the Notre Dame victory with 15 points. Kaayla McIntyre had 13 and Tierra Floyd finished with 11 points and seven assists.
"We felt the best chance that we had was to try to make them guard us in halfcourt," Springfield coach Steve Carroll said.
Natalie Yoder scored a 13 points for the Blue Devils and Gabby Teifke added eight.
Springfield's tried to keep the pace slow.
"I give them all the credit in the world. I thought they had a tremendous game plan," Notre Dame coach Travis Galloway said. "I thought they stayed with their game plan, which allowed them to hang around and have a chance in the fourth quarter."
Floyd admits the Blue Devils kept ND off-balance.
"We thought we were ready for it but it was a little bit surprising because we hadn't played against a team like that," Floyd said. "It was hard for us to play defense the whole time and for us not to gamble (on defense)."
The Eagles led 25-17 at halftime.
"We were thrilled to be down by eight points at halftime," Springfield coach Steve Carroll said. "We came out in the second half and said we want to win the third quarter. We wanted to control the tempo and I thought we did a pretty good job of that and we gave ourselves a chance in the fourth quarter. Unfortunately, we had to match up with them and get after them a little more and it led to them getting some easy looks."
Springfield outscored Notre Dame 9-7 in the first few minutes of the third quarter and trailed 32-26. But that would end up as the closest the Blue Devils would get.
"We became more accustomed to what we like to do," Galloway said.
Contact Donald Emmons at: demmons@theblade.com, 419-724-6302 or on Twitter @DemmonsBlade.