You've gotta work for it

Northwest Whitfield’s boys basketball team used a mid-game change in intensity against North Paulding to keep its season moving in the right direction.

After the visiting Wolfpack took a one-point lead and a bigger share of momentum into the locker room at halftime on Tuesday in Tunnel Hill, the Bruins converted an energetic third quarter into regained control of the scoreboard and kept North Paulding at arm’s length in a 61-49 Region 7-4A victory.

“We talked at halftime about what we had to do X-and-O-wise,” Bruins coach Ryan Richards said. “But more or less, we had to turn the heat up — and I thought we did a good job of that in the third quarter.”

Northwest’s girls helped set up a sweep with an 80-15 win against the Lady Wolfpack earlier in the evening.

The sixth consecutive victory for the Bruins (10-4, 2-2 in 7-4A) came against a young, scrappy Wolfpack (2-13, 0-4) that didn’t make relaxing much of an option even with a 10-point cushion for much of the fourth quarter.

But by that point, Northwest’s commitment to aggressive play on offense by its guards and pressure defense by everyone on the floor had helped swing the situation back in its favor.

“They did a good job pressing us,” Wolfpack coach Chris Wolski said. “They’re the first team that’s really done that and been successful.”

North Paulding took its first lead on Austin Lee’s 3-pointer with 3:06 to play in the second quarter and held a 30-29 edge at halftime.

But when senior Lance Andrews grabbed a steal at midcourt and coasted to the basket for an easy layup that pushed Northwest’s lead to 43-36 with 23 seconds remaining in the third quarter, that rough stretch seemed all but forgotten for the Bruins.

From there, they found senior post Michael Kelly for easy baskets inside — he led with 12 points, 10 of them in the fourth quarter — to seal the victory.

“We quit passing as much and started attacking harder,” Kelly said. “When you do that, the holes just open up.”

Alex Thames added 10 points for Northwest, while Baker Chiddester had 12 rebounds, six points and five steals. Lee led North Paulding with 13 points.

Earlier, the Lady Bruins (12-2, 4-0) enjoyed their best defensive effort of 2009-10 and just missed matching their season high for points, set in an 82-30 non-region win against Murray County last week in Tunnel Hill.

Jordi Cook, playing in her first game since Dec. 30 — she was held out against Murray County while recovering from illness and last week’s inclement weather disrupted the Lady Bruins’ weekend schedule — led Northwest with 25 points. While Cook’s typically sharp outside shooting touch was on display at times, the senior guard took pride in scoring in other ways.

“I only had three 3s,” Cook said. “Usually when we play other teams, their coaches (have said), ‘Oh, she can’t dribble. She’s just an outside shooter.’ That’s kind of got in my head a little bit. I’ve started driving more and today we were getting steals and I was running the floor for easy layups.”

The game pitting the Lady Bruins, ranked fourth in the latest GaSports.com Class 4A coaches poll, and North Paulding (0-14, 0-4), a third-year school, panned out to be the mismatch one might have reasonably expected.

But Northwest — which led 29-3 after one quarter, 49-7 at halftime and 73-13 at the end of the third, forcing a six-minute fourth quarter per the Georgia High School Association’s mercy rule — did what was necessary to stretch its legs after the weather disruptions of the past week.

“We shot the ball extremely well and did a good job on defense,” said coach Margaret Stockburg-er, whose Lady Bruins have won 11 consecutive games. “I think they’re getting to where they know what a good shot is really all about.”

Quaneisha McCurty added 18 points and six rebounds and Emily Trew 12 points and six steals for Northwest, while Emily Maxwell led North Paulding with six points.

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