(December 16th, 2014) – PIONEER: In a match-up with Green Meadows Conference opponent Antwerp, the Lady Eagles of North Central showed the stuff from which the Buckeye Border Conference (BBC) is made.
And, after suffering a 51-28 defeat, the Lady Archers found out that the BBC is made of superior basketball skill.
It was senior Sabrina Pickford who led the North Central attack, producing 18 points against the Lady Archers. Rachel Oxender, another senior, put up 12 points, all of which came from two-point field goals. Junior Cady VanDeVoorde scored 10 points in the victory, making 6 of her 9 free throw attempts along the way.
Free throw shooting in general was solid for the North Central girls. Taking 19 attempts in the game, they managed to make 14 of them. This put the Eagles at 74% shooting from the line. They also did a great job of limiting Antwerp’s extra point attempts. The Archers took just 10 shots from the charity stripe, only making 6 of them for a 60% average.
North Central also won the turnover battle. With just 11 errors to their name, the Lady Eagles were efficient with the ball all night long. That’s not to say that the Archers were careless. Antwerp’s produced a low number of turnovers as well at 14. This is not why they lost so definitively.
That honor belonged to the Lady Eagle defense. Holding all of the Antwerp girls to single digit scoring nights, no Archer was able to consistently hit their mark in the contest. In fact, outside of a 15 point third quarter, the visiting girls failed to crack into double digit scoring per quarter as a team. Putting up 51 points was a good night for North Central, but it was pinning Antwerp down to under 30 points that was the real impressive feat.
The victory puts the North Central girls at a 4-2 record on the season. If they continue to play at this level, they’ll soon be adding a lot more wins to that total.