
RANDY HISNER
WZBD.com
The middle quarters belonged to Bellmont in the championship game of the Maconaquah Girls’ Basketball Sectional Saturday night, but the first and last quarters belonged to Norwell in a big way as the Knights won their 11th title in the last 14 years, 57-40.
The game looked nothing like the 52-22 pounding the Knights handed out just three weeks ago in the teams’ regular-season matchup.
This time the Knights knew they were in a game. The Braves, by outscoring the Knights 9-7 in the second quarter and 12-7 in the third, battled back from a 25-11 first-quarter deficit to climb within seven at 39-32 heading into the final frame.

But the #1 (MaxPreps rankings) or #2 (ICGSA poll) 3A Knights regained control, winning the fourth quarter 18-8 to pull away.
Norwell’s Makenzie Fuess, who led all scorers with 25 points, hit perhaps the biggest shot of the game at the 6:35 mark of the final period when she nailed a three-pointer from a step beyond the top of the key, pushing the Norwell lead into double digits for good at 42-32. The basket came just moments after the Knights’ Annabelle Johnson almost turned the ball over when she fumbled it near the Norwell bench, but Norwell coach Eric Thornton salvaged the possession with a quick time out. On the reset, Fuess found her open look.

“I knew whenever I was in that position that I had the open shot and that it would be a great shot for our team,” said Fuess. “I feel like that’s how our team was the entire game. We were looking for the open shot, trying to get each other open the entire time.”
Fuelling followed with an aggressive drive and layup in traffic, and then Fuess managed to toss in a layup while getting fouled and falling to the floor with 4:03 left. That made it 46-32, and though on their next possession the Braves would get to within 11 on Lanie French’s three-pointer, they could never get the lead back to single digits.

Fuess had a lot to do with the Knights’ big advantage in a frenetic first quarter that featured eight turnovers by Bellmont and five by Norwell. She scored nine points on 3-of-3 shooting on three-pointers while teammates Kennedy Fuelling, Vanessa Rosswurm, and Johnson also hit from long range. The torrid 6-of-7 three-point shooting by the Knights put the Braves on their heels.
“They’re good. They can shoot the three,” said Bellmont coach Andy Heim. “Coming into it, obviously we knew that Fuess is their second-best three-point shooter, but when she gets hot, and Kennedy’s out there too, it’s hard. They just started off hot. But kudos to us—we battled back. We could’ve packed it in. We could have very easily said, when we were down 12, 13, 14, 15, ‘This is not our night’ and kind of gone away.”

Even though the Knights’ trademark 1-3-1 trapping defense caused 23 Bellmont turnovers, Heim thought his players handled it much better than they did three weeks ago. “We saw where the holes were at,” he said. “I’m not sure we shot an open layup in that first game. If you’re playing against a 1-3-1 and you’re zipping the ball around, you should shoot a few open layups. Tonight Hailey got open, wide open, down on the block. Emily (Bleke) got wide open on the block. I thought we did a really nice job of finding those people right there.”
The Braves played their usual tenacious 2-3 zone, and for much of the game, it was very effective, holding the high-scoring Knights, averaging a school-record 66 points per game, to single digits in the second and third periods.
Thornton, in his 27th year at Norwell, savored the championship. “We don’t take it for granted,” he said. “It’s hard, it’s hard to win a sectional. Bellmont wanted to win just as bad as we did tonight. They fought hard. It’s always tough the second time you play somebody in a three-week span. Credit to them, but I’m happy with our kids for responding the way they did when it got to under 10 and we had to fight for it.”

Of Fuess’s clutch shot in the fourth quarter, Thornton said, “That’s why you put in all that time. That’s why she’s taken so many shots over the years, for moments like that.”
Senior Hailey Cole spearheaded the Bellmont offense, keeping the Braves in the game with her 10 first-half points, going 4-for-4 on field goals and 2-for-3 on free throws. She added seven in the second half to lead the team with 17 points.

Freshman guard Lanie French hit three crucial three-pointers—on just four attempts—to score nine. Bleke scored seven and had two steals. Kamryn Jarvis added five points, Gwen Laurent two. Senior guard Arabelle Laurent didn’t score, but Heim credited her for doing an excellent job handling the ball against the Norwell pressure.

Rosswurm scored 14 for Norwell. Fuelling had 11. She needs just 14 points to set Norwell’s career scoring record.

The Braves hit 10-of-21 two-pointers (48%), 4-of-9 threes (44%), and 8-of-14 (57%) free throws. The Knights were 11-of-19 (58%) on twos, 9-of-23 (39%) on threes, 8-of-15 (53%) on free throws. Bellmont won the rebounding battle, 29-23.

Norwell will play a one-game 3A regional next Saturday at 4:00 P.M. against Benton Central at Caston High School. Benton Central is 25-3 and ranked 7th in 3A. Bethany Christian will take on Caston in the 1A regional at the same site at 7:00 P.M.
