LINDEN — Taking care of the ball was the downfall for North Montgomery’s girls in a 70-21 loss to West Lafayette.
The Chargers turned the ball over 29 times, leading to 43 Red Devils’ points, as they fall to 7-5 on the season, while Westside moves to 8-4.
“(Adrienne) Tolen did a good job pressuring the ball against us,” Chargers coach Ryan Nuppnau said of the WL sophomore guard, who had a handful of steals and forced a lot of errant passes. “It was hard to make that first pass and get into our offense.”
When the Chargers could set up, they went inside to Katie Rice, who finished with 12 points. The senior also had a game-high nine rebounds.
“North Montgomery played hard, they didn’t quit,” West Lafayette coach Jane Schott said. “I really like the way 31 (Rice) played. We had to know where she was all the time.”
Rice finished with five of the seven field goals for the Chargers, who struggled against that pressure.
They finished 7-of-31 from the field, but as noted, when the offense set up, there was some success, as they had five assists on those five buckets, led by Lydia Dugard with three.
“We know we are going to face that pressure every game,” Nuppnau noted. “We just have to keep working on getting better.”
The game got away from North after a good first quarter. The score was tied at 10 with just over a minute left in that quarter, but it was all Red Devils offensively from there.
Tolen picked up 21 points, but was second in the scoring line behind Kennedy Martin’s 29. The junior more than tripled her season average by dropping six of the seven three-pointers that WL hit.
Molly Agnew added 10, as WL was 28-of-57 from the field, 7-of-13 from deep and 7-of-8 from the line. Gabby Trent led the rebounders with seven, but the Red Devils were out-rebounded by North 35-27. Dugard and Piper Ramey each had five for the Chargers to go with Rice’s nine.
“We’ve had some tough luck with injuries and illness,” Schott said, noting that she was missing three players who had starting experience. “We’ve taken the ‘next person up’ mantra and a lot of players are getting good experience.”
The Chargers are back in action Friday when they travel to Crawfordsville.
West Lafayette 70, North Montgomery 21
WL 15 23 12 20 - 70
NM 10 6 5 0 - 21
West Lafayette (8-4)
FG-FGA FT-FTA PTS: Adrianne Tolen 9-12 2-3 21, Molly Andrew 4-13 2-2 10, Gabby Trent 1-7 0-0 2, Kennedy Martin 10-16 3-3 29, Emma Weida 3-3 0-0 6, Reegan Leeper 0-3 0-0 0, Bree Johnson 0-0 0-0 0, Ellie Wilcoxson 0-1 0-0 0, Grace Young 1-1 0-0 2, Allison Creech 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 28-57 7-8 70.
North Montgomery (7-5, 1-1 SAC)
Madi Welch 1-3 4-4 6, Hadley Broadwater 0-4 0-0 0, Katie Rice 5-10 2-2 12, Lydia Dugard 0-3 0-0 0, Piper Ramey 0-4 1-6 1, Jaydelyn Phillips 1-3 0-2 2, Madison Banta 0-0 0-0 0, Maely Gaskin 0-1 0-0 0, Kaydence Young 0-2 0-0 0, Blair Nichols 0-0 0-1 0, Karleigh Hall 0-0 0-0 0, Maggie Hall 0-1 0-0 0, Charlotte Garver 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 7-31 7-15 21.
3-Pt Shooting: West Lafayette 7-13 (Tolen 1-1, Trent 0-2, Martin 6-10); North Montgomery 0-1 (M.Hall 0-1)
Rebounding: West Lafayette 27 (Trent 7, Tolen 5);
North 35 (Rice 9, Dugard 5, Ramey 5)