Norwood-SCH basketball game goes down to the wire

by Tom Utescher
Posted 2/15/23

In a non-league middle school basketball contest last Thursday afternoon, the girls of the visiting Springside Chestnut Hill Academy middle school varsity hoops squad jumped out to an early lead, but the host Bears of Norwood Fontbonne Academy soon caught up and made a game of it.

Later, NFA led with less than two minutes left to play, but a late push by the Blue Devils earned them a 39-36 victory that raised their overall season record to 8-3.

As the game got underway, SCH eighth-grader Sydney Smith went right down to court to score. A field goal by Amelia Gallagher and a lay-up and a …

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Norwood-SCH basketball game goes down to the wire

Posted

In a non-league middle school basketball contest last Thursday afternoon, the girls of the visiting Springside Chestnut Hill Academy middle school varsity hoops squad jumped out to an early lead, but the host Bears of Norwood Fontbonne Academy soon caught up and made a game of it.

Later, NFA led with less than two minutes left to play, but a late push by the Blue Devils earned them a 39-36 victory that raised their overall season record to 8-3.

As the game got underway, SCH eighth-grader Sydney Smith went right down to court to score. A field goal by Amelia Gallagher and a lay-up and a jumper by Kendall Schnee resulted in a lopsided early score of 8-0 in favor of the visitors.

Norwood got on the board with a free throw by Neely Lesovitz, and field goals by Nina Meierdiercks and Charli Schoen followed. By the end of the first quarter the Bears were in better shape, though still trailing 10-5.

In the second quarter the Blue Devils began fouling too much, and in particular they made the mistake of fouling Meierdiercks. She stepped to the charity stripe three times to shoot six-for-six, and a little later she bagged a three-pointer from the top of the key to tie the contest at 13-13.

Elijah McMullen and Lillian Maloney each made two free throws for the visitors, and SCH went on to enjoy a 19-16 halftime lead. However, the Blue Devils also had three players who'd committed three fouls each.

Smith powered Springside in the third quarter with three field goals and a free throw, but Norwood had four different players score and cut the Blue Devils' lead to just one point by the end of the period, 30-29.

In the fourth quarter the Bears would inch into the lead on several occasions, and they led for the last time when Schoen popped in a jumper from the left side of the lane to make it 36-35 with a little over two minutes to go.

The clock was down to 1:38 when SCH's Gallagher knocked down a three-pointer from the left wing, giving the Devils a 38-36 advantage. Norwood's next possession ended with a turnover on a bad pass, and with half-a-minute left to play the visitors went into a stall on the offensive end.

They got the clock down to seven seconds before Norwood fouled Maloney. SCH was now in the double bonus, and Maloney made the second of her two free throws to put her team up by three points, 39-36.

Norwood got the ball up to midcourt and called time-out, but now only 1.4 seconds remained. The Bears inbounded the ball, but did not get off a shot.

Smith led victorious SCH with 13 points, while Gallagher and Schnee registered seven points apiece and Devon Donato scored four. Three points each from Maloney and Bella Tinneny and two from McMullen rounded out the total for the Blue Devils.

For Norwood, Meierdiercks scored a game-high 15 points and Lesovitz was close behind, with 12. Shea Flaherty added five points and Schoen had four for the home team.