Mishawaka puts itself in position to win NLC title with win over NorthWood
NAPPANEE — On Senior Night at NorthWood, it was Mishawaka’s seniors Brady Fisher and Cooper Pritchett who stole the show and put coach Bodie Bender’s Cavemen in the driver’s seat toward a possible Northern Lakes Conference boys basketball title.
The 6-foot-3 Pritchett scored a team-high 13 points while the 6-foot-4 Fisher scored 9 points and grabbed 9 rebounds as Mishawaka opened with an 8-0 run and cruised to a 40-32 victory over the host Panthers.
“I’m so proud of the kids — they knew the task at hand,” Bender said as his Cavemen moved to 13-5 overall and 5-1 in the Northern Lakes Conference, a half-game ahead of Concord and Northridge. The Raiders beat the visiting Minutemen 46-43 in Middlebury, ending Concord’s 10-game winning streak but also dropping the Minutemen into a second-place tie with NorthWood at 5-2.
All the Cavemen, who rebounded from a 68-59 non-conference loss at Chesterton Tuesday night, have to do to win the NLC title outright is take care of business at Wawasee Saturday, Feb. 17.
“We knew the two (NorthWood) guys coming in — (Tyler) Raasch and (Ethan) Wolfe — we had to kind of limit them,” Bender said. “The other message for us was to get out and pressure them, make them put the ball on the floor. We just felt they struggled with pressure when we got up.”
The 6-foot-8 junior Raasch led all scorers with 18 points and had three blocks, while 5-foot-11 senior Wolfe, the son of NorthWood coach Aaron Wolfe, was held to 12 points. The only other Panther to score was senior Keegin Stats, who had two points.
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“We knew this was an important game if we wanted to win the conference,” Fisher said. “The game plan coming in was to take away Wolfe shooting the ball and Raasch killing us down low.”
Fisher, Pritchett and Anthony Nelson frustrated Raasch, who managed just three rebounds as Mishawaka won the battle of the boards 23-12, forced 14 turnovers while making only 11 and also showed great patience on offense working for its shots.
“We wanted to wait on our looks,” Pritchett said. “When they started to pressure us, we didn’t flinch.”
Fisher and Pritchett each had baskets and senior guard Rasauun Johnson had two as the Cavemen ran out to an 8-0 lead in the first 3:46 of the game. The Cavemen led 16-6 after the first quarter and only surrendered a 3-pointer to Wolfe in the low-scoring second period to take a 20-9 lead to the locker room at halftime.
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Wolfe’s second 3-pointer of the night brought the Panthers to within six, 26-20, with 4:07 left in the third quarter. But they got no closer. It was 32-23 Mishawaka after three quarters, and Mishawaka’s biggest lead was 12 – 36-24 – with 2:30 remaining when Johnson, who finished with eight points, scored on a feed from Fisher.
“Mishawaka did a nice job winning the first quarter,” NorthWood coach Aaron Wolfe said after his team finished its NLC schedule at 4-3 and dropped to 12-7 overall heading into Saturday’s non-conference game with visiting Lakeland. “We had a couple of runs but didn’t capitalize when we needed to. They played better basketball when it was most important.”
Before they finish their conference schedule Feb. 17, the Cavemen visit South Bend Adams Tuesday and then play host to South Bend Career Academy Feb. 16.
MISHAWAKA 40, NORTHWOOD 32
At NorthWood High School, Nappanee
MISHAWAKA (40): Brady Fisher 9, Cooper Pritchett 13, Rasauun Johnson 8, Anthony Nelson 2, Jackson Snyder 4, Jack Troyer 1, Landon Johns 3, TOTALS 15 9-15 40.
NORTHWOOD (32): Ethan Wolfe 12, Keegin Stats 2, Owen Roeder 0, Tyler Raasch 18, Seth Russell 0, Grant Miller 0, Mason Pearson 0, TOTALS 12 6-8 32.
Mishawaka | 16 | 20 | 32 | 40
NorthWood | 6 | 9 | 22 | 32
3-point goals: Mishawaka 1 (Johns 1), NorthWood 2 (Wolfe 2). Shooting: Mishawaka 15 of 29 for 51.7 percent, NorthWood 12 of 26 for 46.2 percent. Rebounds: Mishawaka 23 (Fisher 9), NorthWood 12 (Russell 4, Raasch 3). Turnovers: Mishawaka 11, NorthWood 14. Total fouls (fouled out): Mishawaka 11 (none), NorthWood 19 (none). Records: Mishawaka 13-5, 5-1 Northern Lakes Conference; NorthWood 12-7, 4-3 Northern Lakes Conference). J.V. score: NorthWood 45, Mishawaka 24.
This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Mishawaka boys basketball in NLC contention with win over NorthWood
