PREP PROFILE: Goals just ahead for Northview girls
Jan. 20—Two of the season goals are obvious and still in play for senior Macey Timberman and junior Audri Spencer as Northview plays at Indian Creek on Friday in girls high school basketball.
Northview is unbeaten in Western Indiana Conference play — so is Indian Creek — and is awaiting Sunday's sectional draw to see who and when it will play when it serves as host of the seven-team tournament that begins Feb. 1.
A third, less obvious, goal will be accomplished if the Knights can get the other two jobs done. Currently 18-3, the Knights have never had a 20-win season in girls basketball, and Timberman and Spencer would like to get that done before the regular season is over.
"We also want to win conference," Timberman said earlier this week, "but we all want to get 20 wins. For the seniors, it's our last ride and we need to come out and show people we're here to play."
"It means a lot," Spencer said of the quest for 20 wins. "If we come back [after graduating] people will know who we were, and it might give young groups coming up more confidence."
Achieving any or all of those goals will almost certainly be because of the contributions of Northview's veteran backcourt.
"They've been the model of consistency in all 20 games," coach Zack Keyes said of Spencer and Timberman prior to Monday's win over Cloverdale. "They're the ultimate competitors . . . they hate to lose."
"We never want to give up," Spencer added.
The Knights have certainly trended upward since the two of them started playing together. Although Timberman was a freshman starter on the 2018 team that won a sectional championship, other key players from that team graduated. Spencer was a freshman starter the next year, when the Knights were 8-15, and they were 11-6 last year before potentially making history this winter.
Reasons for the improvement?
"As you get older, you mature, you learn from past experience," Keyes said.
"Our chemistry has gotten better," Spencer said. "Macey can yell at me, then the next play I throw it to her and she scores . . . or if Macey gets mad at a call [by the officials], I have to go hold her head up."
"We're all kind of hard on ourselves," Timberman said. "We hold each other accountable. We can take each other's criticism.
"Me and Audri are definitely like blockheads," she continued. "We both say what we want to say; we don't sugar-coat anything."
The chemistry also works in a positive direction, the girls emphasized.
"What's the word? Selfless? We're happy for each other when someone else has an accomplishment," Timberman added. "They're my teammates, but they're also my family. My parents are their parents, and their parents are my parents."
"If there's an extra pass? A year ago, we might not have made that pass," Spencer said.
"We're mentally stronger," Timberman said.
"It's composure more than anything," Keyes believes. "If we get behind, we know we can come back . . . and in late-game situations, we find a way to execute and find a way to win."
And as good as they are as players, Keyes thinks even more of Spencer and Timberman as people.
"They're great kids, on and off the court," he emphasized. "I've been very blessed."
