By Gene Galin
Durham, NC – The Northwood boys varsity and JV basketball teams along with the girls varsity team went up to compete against Northern high school on Wednesday. All three won their contests.
Northwood Boys JV over Northern, 38-31
| JV Basketball | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | Q4 | Final |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Northwood | 9 | 10 | 10 | 9 | 38 |
| Northern | 13 | 3 | 13 | 2 | 31 |
The Northwood JV basketball team managed to overcome their deficits in the first and third quarters with strong performances in the other two quarters to pull off a 38-31 win.
Northwood Girls over Northern, 64 – 26
| Girls Varsity Basketball | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | Q4 | Final |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Northwood | 14 | 16 | 16 | 18 | 64 |
| Northern | 4 | 10 | 8 | 4 | 26 |
The Northwood Lady Chargers played strong throughout the game and built up a 40 point lead in the fourth quarter. This resulted in a running clock for about the last 3 minutes of the game.
Leading scorers for Northwood were Tekeya Bland with 14 points, McKenna Snively with 12 points and Skylar Adams with 11.
Despite the sizable win, coach Cameron Vernon felt that the team could have played better. “We had a small burst in the fourth quarter that showed you what we were capable of. We need to sustain this over the entire game.”
This game allowed the coach to bring in players that don’t see much playing time. He noted: “We can get girls playing time, those girls who are always coming into practice and working hard. I have a hard problem. I have some really good kids that can play and I have 11 of them that can really play and I only have 32 minutes in the game to play them. So opportunities like this; where those guys who don’t play big minutes, can come out here and show me what they’re capable of. And we were able to really work on some stuff, we’ve been doing in practice.”
Northwood Boys Varsity over Northern, 57-50
| Varsity Basketball | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | Q4 | Final |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Northwood | 23 | 16 | 9 | 9 | 57 |
| Northern | 12 | 9 | 10 | 19 | 50 |
Top scorers for Northwood were Drake Powell with 18 points, Colby Burleson with 11 and Jarin Stevenson with 8.
After the game, coach Matt Brown noted: “We had some turnovers in third quarter. And we didn’t knock down shots that we were knocking down the first half. But again, that’s just our youth having to handle the pressure that they’re putting on us. Northern played great. We knew they’re going to be tough in here. It always is every year. They played really well down the stretch. It’s just another learning experience for our young guys. A great win in conference on the road. A win is a win in my book.”
“This conference is tough. And I’m proud of the guys and we’ve got to keep on rolling.” – Northwood coach Matt Brown
