{"id":12752,"date":"2024-02-02T10:42:22","date_gmt":"2024-02-02T15:42:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/?p=12752"},"modified":"2024-02-02T10:42:23","modified_gmt":"2024-02-02T15:42:23","slug":"braves-continue-march-toward-ne8-title-with-home-win-over-knights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/2024\/02\/02\/braves-continue-march-toward-ne8-title-with-home-win-over-knights\/","title":{"rendered":"Braves continue march toward NE8 title with home win over Knights\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By DEAN JACKSON<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

WZBD.com<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

DECATUR \u2014 It wasn\u2019t supposed to go like this. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The way East Noble was shooting, it would be a while before they cooled down. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, Bellmont, while maybe not as proficient, was responding well outside the arc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was all about the long ball, until it wasn\u2019t, as Bellmont topped East Noble 72-57 Thursday night in Northeast Eight boys basketball.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Braves improved to 14-3 and 5-1 in the NE8. East Noble drops to 8-8 and 2-3 in the conference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both coaches readily admit it was a showdown featuring sharpshooters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Andrew James dropped 20 on East Noble Thursday night. <\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Andrew James finished with nine of his 20 points in the run. Jack Scheumann led Bellmont with 28 points.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ryker Quake led the Knights with 19 points. Nathan Bowker chipped in with 14. Owen Van Gessel had 12.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Braves hit 10 three-pointers and East Noble finished with nine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Listen to WZBD’s upcoming Radio Auctions to purchase discounted gift cards for upcoming movies.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAt halftime, I thought the same thing,\u201d Bellmont coach Payton Selking reasoned. “I thought we played well offensively in the first half. But man, they shot the heck out of it there in that first half.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was from a coach who already knew what the Knights could do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Bellmont senior Kord Fuelling waits to shoot a free throw Thursday against East Noble. <\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe knew they could shoot it, and they proved us correct there in the first half.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Selking\u2019s unofficial tally, East Noble finished with 7-of-10 three-point baskets in the first two quarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

East Noble coach Brandon Durnell agreed.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

“That’s what it looked like to start the game. Then we stopped making shots.\u201d Coupled with a cooldown behind the arc and a lack of production inside, it caught up with the visiting Knights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI didn’t feel like we got a ton of paint touches, which hurt us late in the game when they were on their run.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

East Noble evened the score at 38-38 on a three-pointer from Bowker to start the third quarter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Twenty seconds later, Bellmont guard Gavin Krull answered with a bomb that pushed the Braves ahead 41-38 and drew the crowd in at the 6:55 mark.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

East Noble would never threaten again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the span of 6:10, the host Braves went on a 21-2 run to take a 59-40 lead into the final period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur defense could have been better in that stretch, and we could have executed better offensively,\u201d Durnell lamented. \u201cWe got to find a way to get the ball into the paint. I didn’t feel like we did a good enough job doing that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

East Noble cut the lead to just 11 points with about four minutes left when Mason Treesh dropped a layup, drew a foul, and made the free throw to make it 64-53.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Selking knew the Knights would be tough. \u201cThere’s not a team that we play that plays harder, plays more physically and with more energy than this team.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Bellmont Braves break after a time out as they try to figure out the hot shooting of the East Noble Knights in the first half Thursday night. <\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Braves committed just three turnovers through the third quarter. That’s before the East Noble press.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We had four there in the fourth quarter,” Selking said. “It was just kind of chaotic pressure – they do a good job at rotating all the way around, doubling the ball, and taking the first pass away on both sides of the floor. It took us a few minutes to get settled in.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
After Columbia City and Norwell play Saturday afternoon, the winner of that contest will be tied with coach Payton Selking’s Braves for the lead in the NE8. The Braves can clinch at least a share of the conference title with a win at DeKalb Thursday. <\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Durnell knows it’s more than just an opponent being gracious in victory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey have done that all year. When we’ve gotten down, they’ve done a good job of staying in the game and battling back. But man, we’ve got to find ways to stop runs.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Braves have a 6-day break before they travel to DeKalb on Thursday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

East Noble is back in action Wednesday, hosting Bishop Dwenger.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By DEAN JACKSON WZBD.com DECATUR \u2014 It wasn\u2019t supposed to go like this.  The way East Noble was<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12753,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[41,13,15,26],"class_list":["post-12752","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-basketball","tag-bellmont","tag-featured","tag-sports"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wzbd.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/IMG_4506.jpg?fit=1599%2C1467&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12752","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12752"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12752\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12752"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12752"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12752"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}