With just six games under its belt and four postponements in the past month, Northwestern’s boys basketball team was eager to stretch its legs and show progress Saturday morning in the opening game of the Howard County Tournament.
Riding a wave of intensity and pent-up energy, the Purple Tigers unleashed a strong defensive effort and efficient offense in taking down Taylor 61-52 in the semifinal round to book a place in the final against Western.
“The kids came out defensively wanting to set a tempo. We’ve put a lot of focus on it,” NW coach Jim Gish said. “Only playing six games like we have, they’re ready to play some basketball. I thought they played like that.”
Taylor connected on just 17 of 54 shots while Northwestern hit more than half its shots, canning 23 of 43 and holding the lead for the entirety of the last three quarters.
“I’m pretty pleased and I’ll be honest, it’s a very good Taylor team so to walk off the court with a win is a good feeling,” Gish said.
Wing forward Zech Sanders got the ball rolling for Gish’s squad, scoring the Tigers’ first two buckets and canning 10 of his team-high 15 in the first half. Post players Jimmy McKee and Jared Treadway combined for 24 more points. Treadway had six in the first quarter en route to 13 while McKee had nine of his 11 in the second half, helping keep the Titans at arm’s length.
McKee and Treadway each hit on 5 of 6 shots from the field, and combined for 14 rebounds. Treadway scored a big hoop early in the fourth on a rebound stickback in which he got fouled. He knocked down the free throw to push Northwestern’s advantage to 48-38. Later, Taylor closed the lead to six points, but got no further.
“The kids got the ball where it needed to be,” Gish said of his team’s offense. “Our post guys really stepped up big, going to the glass, being a force on the glass.
“Treadway and Jimmy McKee both, I thought, played probably their best games. It’s nice to have some big guys step up and play their best games in a game like this. They played aggressively offensively and defensively, they didn’t back down. I thought they really looked to put the ball in the hole when they got it.”
Brayden Merrell added eight points and seven rebounds for the Tigers, who put up just four 3-pointers, hitting one. Taylor launched 25 treys, hitting five.
Northwestern took the lead for good in the first quarter on a forceful post bucket by Treadway to give the tourney hosts a 12-11 lead. Taylor played catchup the rest of the way.
“The two things that killed us are turn the ball over and not rebounding,” Taylor coach Jeff Fisher said. His team had turnovers in four of its first five possessions and was outrebounded 37-25. “I just think Northwestern played better than we did. They went after it.
“We talked about players win games and they’ve got to take some responsibility and win games, and until they do that, we’re going to struggle, and Northwestern did. They took control and did what they wanted to do. We did not.”
Reomey Northington led Taylor with 20 points. Tyler Simmons added a dozen and Drake Herr had 10. Simmons grabbed a team-best eight rebounds.
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