Chargers advance to Kitchen Classic semifinals

Cody Emerson | codey@jrpress.com

LINDEN — It was a good night for the North Montgomery Charger girls and boys basketball teams on Monday. The Chargers opened the first round of the Indiana Kitchen Classic with a doubleheader at home against the Rossville Hornets. The women’s team progressed smoothly in the game, holding off the Hornets until the end and winning 31-27. The men’s game was much like the women’s game, with the Chargers holding the lead until the end and winning 38-33, sending both teams into Wednesday’s semifinals.

Ramey leads Chargers to semifinals

Piper Ramey is the catalyst for the Lady Chargers. Her teammates know it, and of course the Charger coaching staff knows it. On Monday against the Hornets, Ramey scored 17 of the Chargers’ 31 points, including 7-of-8 from the foul line, helping the Chargers advance to the semifinals. In addition to Ramey’s performance, the Chargers also played great defense all night, forcing Rossville to just 1-10 3-pointers and turning it over 14 times.

“I thought we had a little bit of a run early, but we still had the lead after the first quarter,” Chargers coach Ryan Kupnow said. “We did all the little things we needed to do to stay in the game. Coach (Matt) Voorhees said some of his teams in the past haven’t been able to find a way to win these types of games, but this year I told the girls that this team was able to do that. They shot 5-for-8 from the line in the fourth quarter and stayed calm.”

North Montgomery (7-7) has relied on its defense this season while continuing to improve offensively. Through 14 games, the Chargers are holding their opponents to 38.3 points per game. The defense was outstanding again Monday, and Nupunow really likes the way the girls play on that side of the ball.
“We played really good defense against them,” he said. “They have two pretty good-sized girls, but one of them (Eva Burkle) got in some foul trouble. Girls like Blaire (Nichols) and Ella (Mamanomy). They did a great job staying up late when we wanted to apply pressure, forcing them to use their last timeout before they wanted to, which allowed them to force a 5-second call. . It was a really great team win with all the girls doing their part and stepping up when called upon.”

In addition to Ramey’s 17 points, Macy Norman scored seven points to help the Chargers win, and Crestin Bradford scored the Chargers’ first three points with 20 seconds left in the third quarter to finish with four points. . Kaylin Carpenter added two points and Nichols scored one. For the game, the Chargers shot 9-38 (23%) from the floor, but 1-15 (7%) from three. They made up for it by going 12-16 (75%) from the foul line while grabbing 34 rebounds.

For the game, the Hornets were just 1-10 from three, 9-37 from the field (24%) and 8-12 from the foul line (67%). They grabbed 28 rebounds. The Hornets were led by Eva Burkle (14 points per game) with nine points, Allie Elliott eight points, Adi Gorbet (9 points per game) seven points and Cadence Roby rounded out the game with three points. .

Rossville will play North Newton in the repechage bracket on Friday, and the Chargers will advance to the semifinals against Winamac on Friday. Winamac defeated the Chargers 44-25 in the same contest a season ago, so the Chargers will have some bounce back in mind when the teams meet Wednesday night.

“If we win the game, we have a chance to compete for the championship.” It’s Wednesday,” Nupunow said. “To win a war, you have to win some battles. We know we can’t win every battle, and we didn’t win tonight either, but we won enough. This will be a new battle with Winamac, who took our number last year, and these girls are ready for the opportunity in front of them.”

Boys have a big win over the Hornets

The Chargers boys were undermanned on Monday and will likely be undermanned for at least the next few weeks. The Chargers’ offense looked a little different against the Hornets after junior Kelby Harwood suffered a thumb injury Saturday against Covington. North only managed to score his 38 points, but his physical defense stayed solid for most of the night, and when the clock hid his two zeros, the effort was enough for the Chargers to win. It was something.

North led 31-28 going into the final quarter, and both teams’ defenses gave it their all. The game’s best chance came on an out-of-bounds play with 1:20 left, when sharp-shooting senior Jarrod Kirsch sank a corner 3 to give the Chargers a 36-33 lead. The Hornets had a chance to tie the game with 27.9 seconds left after a North turnover, but the Chargers’ defense attacked the ball and Rossville had to call a timeout with 9.5 seconds left. A contested corner 3 missed, but Kirsch made two free throws to seal the game.

“It was tough without Kelby tonight because he does so much for us,” Charger coach Chad Arnold said. “I’m proud of the players who had to step up in his absence. All of the players were ready to play. The rotation on defense was great, especially on the ball in the second half. The effort was really good.”

Kirsch led the Chargers with 14 points, and Noah Hopkins added 12 points. Ross Dyson scored six points, and Cam Enloe, Jack Warren and Corbin Meadows each scored two. For the game, North Montgomery (4-3) shot 15-38 from the floor (39%) and 3-14 from three (21%). Although the Chargers didn’t get to the line very often, they increased their attempts from the line to 5-6. They grabbed 27 rebounds and turned it over 10 times.

Rossville (4-5) was led off the bench by Jordan Skiles with 10 points and Charlie Thompson with eight points. Brayden Seal-Hahn added six points, Kayden Wilson five points and Brody Skinner four points. The Hornets shot him 12-37 (32%) from the floor, 20 of which came from his threes, and he only made 3-20 (15%). Rossville also shot just 6-12 (50%) from the foul line, grabbed 25 rebounds and turned it over 10 times.

“We ran a set for Jarrod and he slipped a screen and knocked down the biggest shot of the game,” Arnold said. “They got confused by it and two of them followed the screener and left him wide open. After the timeout, we faceguarded them, but they were late entering the game. Hopefully we can continue to grow from the close games we’ve had. We had a chance to win every game, but I love the fight our players show in the games. Ross Dyson is a freshman (Thiele). He’s a really good player, but Ross boxed him in and didn’t make him feel safe.”

The Chargers will also play Wednesday night, 20 minutes after the women’s game. North Newton defeated Winamac 42-39, setting up a semifinal matchup between the Chargers and Spartans. If either Charger team is able to win, the championship game is scheduled for Saturday at 2 p.m. for the women and at 4 p.m. for the men. If either team loses, the third-place game is also scheduled for Saturday at 10 a.m. for the women and noon for the men.

The remaining games will be played at Delphi High School.