Northwest pounds Carroll
When the Northwest boys team walked into the gym on Saturday morning, riding a two-game losing streak, coach Chris Collins told them to get on the line. It was time to run.
The Grizzlies ran. And ran. And ran some more.
For two hours, Collins ran his players.
“It was a heart-check practice,” he said. “It was something that was necessary. I felt there was a little complacency setting in. They’re too good (of) young men for me to allow that to happen. That practice, walk in, two-plus hours later, I have a much better feeling about where we’re at as far as a basketball team.”
The Grizzlies responded Tuesday night with a 57-41 victory over visiting Bishop Carroll to cement second place in the City League.
“That practice helped everybody out,” said senior Spenser Gales, who had 13 rebounds and 12 points. “It checks your heart. If you don’t have any heart and don’t want to play the game, you’ll walk out of the gym. If you want to keep playing, you (stay).”
But Northwest (14-5, 12-3 CL), whose consecutive losses were to Heights and East, struggled initially against Carroll.
At the 6:56 mark of the second quarter with Carroll leading 16-11, Northwest senior Craig Nicholson got hit in the mouth and half of his right front tooth broke off. As play was stopped, Collins picked up the piece of tooth and walked across the court to give it to Nicholson’s parents.
“At that point in time when it did happen, (I said) ‘either you can allow that to happen or you can start swinging back,’” Collins said.
Northwest didn’t respond well initially.
Carroll (8-11, 5-10) got a basket from Sean Reazin for the seven-point lead with 6:07 remaining in the first half. Less than a minute later, Nicholson hit a jumper. About a minute later when Nicholson was fouled by Carroll’s Jordan Bieberle, who had a team-high 14 points, Nicholson was called for a technical. Carroll turned it into a four-point possession for the 22-13 lead.
Finally, Northwest answered like Collins wanted. The Grizzlies went on an 8-0 run over the final three minutes of the half, sparked by Nicholson’s three-pointer, to get within one.
“We had to wait until they hit us in the mouth first until we’d respond back,” said Nicholson, who finished with 20 points and three steals.
Northwest added another 7-0 run in the third quarter and a 12-0 in the fourth.
“When they hit us in the mouth at the beginning of the game, they came out hitting us and jumped out to an early lead, it was a reality check: we have to play our best game,” Gales said.
| Carroll | 13 | 9 | 8 | 11 | — | 41 |
| Northwest | 11 | 10 | 12 | 24 | — | 57 |
Carroll – J. Bieberle 5 2-2 14, Smith 0 3-8 3, Bullinger 3 0-0 6, Ta. Palmore 2 2-2 6, Newell 2 0-0 4, Reazin 2 0-1 4, Loy 2 0-0 4, Ty. Palmore 0 0-0 0, M. Bieberle 0 0-0 0, Terhune 0 0-0 0, Evans 0 0-0 0. Totals 16 (2) 7-13 41.
Northwest – Moncada 2 0-0 4, Miller 3 6-8 12, Gales 5 2-2 12, Carter 2 0-0 4, Nicholson 6 7-12 20, Tuggle 1 2-2 4, Jones 0 0-0 0, Hughes 0 1-3 1, Price 0 0-0 0, Carson 0 0-0 0, McIntyre 0 0-0 0, Johnson 0 0-0 0. Totals 19 (1) 18-27 57.