NorthWood’s Neely Trenshaw watches her free throw go in during the Lady Panther’s 48-39 win over Mishawaka Tuesday night. (Photos by Mike Deak)

NAPPANEE – There are times when ‘ugly’ still gets it done.

A myriad of fouls, extended explanations, two bench warnings and a seemingly never-ending fourth quarter still had NorthWood stay within itself enough to withstand Mishawaka, 48-39, Tuesday in girls buckets at The Pit.

NorthWood looked to have had Mishawaka right where it wanted, with its star guard Gretta Meixel with just one point at the half and its other major contributor, Alivia Jachimiak, missing most of the first half with an injury.

NorthWood’s Maddy Payne takes a jumper in the lane against the Cavemen.

But just a 24-17 Panther lead at the half saw the Cavemen hanging around late in the third, down just five at 37-32 after Aryana Shelton buried a three. NorthWood would respond, however, with a jumper from Karlie Fielstra to go back up seven.

The margin wouldn’t get any closer than three possessions the rest of the way. NorthWood made sure of it, hitting 23 of 29 free throw attempts in the game.

“I liked that we had kids step up tonight and make free throws that weren’t named McKenzie Bergman,” said NorthWood head coach Adam Yoder.

Bergman would lead NorthWood with 13 points, but 10 of those came in the first half. Still managing to get wide open looks in the second half, the attention Mishawaka finally began to send at Bergman opened up the middle, where NorthWood would generate its free throws.

“One of the things we are working on with McKenzie is she needs to be comfortable with the ball in her hands,” Yoder said. “If she is open, it needs to go up. The matchup with her and Gretta, it was a good battle, and I liked that we just had good team defense to keep Gretta quiet on offense. Our bigs in the post kept from making a bunch of silly fouls, which is big in a game like this one.”

Savannah Feenstra wound up with 11 points, eight rebounds, six steals and two assists for NorthWood and Maddy Payne had six boards to go with eight points. Neely Trenshaw came through with five of six made free throws down the stretch to seal NorthWood’s win. Jachimiak led the Cavemen (0-1) with 14 points. Meixel was limited to four points and Shelton ended with nine points.

The extracurricular stops in the game added to the drama, with both benches getting warnings for excessive communication with the officials, and even a fan was warned for his opinions.

The teams saw themselves into over two dozen combined turnovers, and both Meixel and Shelton fouled out in the fourth quarter on touch fouls with the game still within decision. All part of the game, or just one of those nights?

“We persevered,” Yoder said. “I don’t have any problem when we get handsy with people, I don’t have any problem with them calling it. We know they are going to call it. That’s the gamble we take. They don’t call it in January, they don’t call it in February. So I had no problem with them calling hand checks on us, and I’m going to leave it at that with the rest of it.”

The junior varsity saw NorthWood nearly pitch a shutout in a 36-1 victory. The Panthers didn’t allow a point except one free throw made with 4.1 seconds left in the third quarter.

NorthWood (2-1) will get back to it Saturday at Rochester, a 1:30 p.m. start.