RALLYING FOR THE WIN Evergreens Addison Ricker turns the corner on a drive during the Vikings sectional win over Northwood
By: Joe Blystone
THE VILLAGE REPORTER
publisher@thevillagereporter.com
METAMORA (February 22, 2024) – Evergreen only led for three minutes the entire game but two of those minutes were the last two minutes of the game as Evergreen came from a 10-point third quarter deficit to dispatch Northwood from the Division III sectional girls tournament, 33-30.
“We struggled with some offense right away,” Evergreen coach Brittaney Cymbolin said. “Definitely we needed to turn our defense into our offense. We really got after it in the second half and finally got the ball to go in the basket when we needed it to.”
Two Brooke Sintobin baskets kept Evergreen even early, then Addie Ricker’s power move with 1:13 left in the first gave Evergreen a short lived 6-5 lead before Natalie Thompson took a rebound coast-to-coast with 6.7 left in the quarter to put Northwood ahead to stay until deep into the fourth.
Lanae Manz’s triple off a turnover kept Evergreen within a point with 2:25 left in the half but Autumn Schroeder offset that shot with a triple of her own, then added two drives for buckets in the last minute to push the Rangers ahead 19-11 at halftime.
Sintobin turned two Ranger turnovers into baskets to start the third, chopping the Northwood lead in half.
“Brooke Sintobin does a great job for us turning defense into points for us, “Cymbolin explained. “Everybody started to follow suit and was flying around. Balls were getting tipped, and we were on the floor going after it.”
Thompson’s floater and a drive then gave Northwood their biggest lead at 25-15 with 3:12 left. It was at that point the Vikings trapping defense began to take its toll.
Kennedy Emmitt hit a floater off a steal, Kyla Risner drained a three-pointer, Bailey Lumbrezer canned a pair from the stripe and Avah Vaculik scored off Katie Hoffman’s steal to bring the VIkings within 26-24 at the end of the third.
A Manz baseline jumper knotted the game two minutes into the fourth, but Cassidy Genson and Schroeder went back-to-back to give Northwood a 30-26 opening at the 3:48 mark. Northwood never scored again.
Lumbrezer dropped a corner three-pointer with 2:43 to go, Ricker knocked in the lead changer off a power move after an offensive rebound then Emmitt scored off a steal eight seconds later to make it 33-30.
Northwood had chances to either slice the lead or tie, but misfired on a pair of shots, then Emmitt’s steal with 20 seconds left basically ended the game as Northwood, shy on fouls to put the Vikings on the line, couldn’t foul enough in the closing seconds to get to the bonus point.
“We talked about the postseason, it’s either go hard or go home,” said Cymbolin. “Our seniors really took that to heart tonight.”
Schroeder’s 15 led all scorers. Evergreen shot just 13/38 from the field but only turned the basketball over 12 times.
Northwood shot a much better 44% but only got off 28 attempts as Evergreen forced 21 turnovers, 15 of which came in the second half.
NORTHWOOD (30) – Schroeder 15; Haas 0; Schoch 2; Thompson 7; Genson 4; Wauford 0; Bolden 2; Totals: 10-2-4 – 30
EVERGREEN (33) – Risner 3; Manz 5; Br. Sintobin 9; Hoffman 0; Vaculik 2; K. Emmitt 4; Lumbrezer 5; Burgermeister 0; Be. Sintobin 0; Ricker 5; Totals: 10-3-4 – 33
NORTHWOOD 7 12 7 4 – 30
EVERGREEN 6 5 13 9 – 33
