NorthWood’s Kate Rulli catches a lob pass over Wawasee’s Jada Carter while Emily Haines scrambles behind Rulli in a game in Nappanee Saturday night. (Photos by James Costello)

NAPPANEE — It wasn’t so much a matter of knowing what NorthWood was going to do with the ball — with Kate Rulli and Maddy Payne on the interior, Wawasee knew where the Class 3A Lady Panthers wanted it to go in the match-up between conference and sectional rivals at the Pit Saturday night — but more so a matter of being able to stop it.

The visiting Warriors did a pretty creditable job over the first half and trailed by just nine at the break. Unfortunately for NorthWood’s guests, however, the hosts stepped up their inside attack during a 26-9 third quarter, taking control on the way to a 54-33 Northern Lakes Conference win in Nappanee.

“I thought it was kind of a test of wills. They were not wanting us to get inside, and we kind of just said ‘We’re going to try anyway.’ And I think eventually we started to wear them down a little bit,” explained NorthWood coach Adam Yoder. “I thought our post did an excellent job — especially Kate — of being really strong with the basketball. Maddy was very active in the second half. Our guards did a great job of taking the open shots when they were there and transporting the basketball from side-to-side.”

“If I’m correct on the stats, their two bigs Payne and Rulli had about all but 10 points or so,” said Wawasee coach Matt Carpenter. “We knew those two could hurt us, and we rolled the dice a little bit on some of their perimeter shooters. Not that they’re not capable of doing it, but 6-foot inside is going to beat you when they’re talented and they are.”

The six-foot Rulli poured on a game-high 29 points alongside 11 rebounds, and 6-1 senior classmate Payne scored nine of her 11 points over the second half while tallying seven rebounds, four steals and an assist to lead the Panthers to their 13th straight win Saturday. Rulli put up 11 of her points pulling clean-up duty inside as NorthWood hauled in 10 total offensive rebounds. Payne got things done off the dribble adjusting to an active Wawasee zone after halftime.

Maddy Payne drives past Becca Smith in the second half.

“The little zone you saw us play tonight, we put in yesterday because we’ve been busy. When you’re going up against 6-foot and 6-foot-1 and you don’t have a whole to of size, you’ve got to try to make some game plan and some adjustments in order to help your girls have success. We did that,” explained Carpenter.

“Let’s give credit to NorthWood, too. They came out and they saw that for the first time from us as well, and they were going to make some adjustments. One, they made some nice adjustments against our nice, little, packed-in zone. Two, they killed us on the boards, and we knew that was going to be a challenge. “

“We weren’t bad in the first half. I thought Wawasee played really, really well tonight,” Yoder said. “The score there, while it was close, had a lot more to do with them than it did with us. But there are some things we can improve on as well.”

Wawasee’s experiment with a new zone defense proved successful at the outset as the Warriors held ‘Wood to 8-of-22 shooting before the intermission. While designed to keep the ball out of the interior, the zone was equally active in the backcourt, denying the post and turning the Panthers over seven times over the first two frames.

But NorthWood spread the floor in the second half, giving Payne the green light to drive the basketball, and the Panthers surrendered only three more turnovers after the half. Moving from man into zone defenses after the break also limited the Warriors to 4-of-18 shooting from the floor in the game’s final 16 minutes. And Wawasee didn’t do itself many favors from the line, either, converting just 7-of-14 free throws in the second and third quarters.

“I think we found some things that gave them some problems in the zone,” Carpenter explained. “we didn’t shoot the ball well, either from the perimeter or the free throw line. So if we can increase our shooting percentage from both of those areas… We didn’t rebound well. So we stayed in the game the majority of the game, and we didn’t do any of those things well.”

“We’ve got areas that we can improve upon to make it even closer to really take them down to the wire,” he continued. “The girls know that — they know that we competed, but they also know that we have some areas that we weren’t quite clicking on all cylinders and we have another gear we can take it to if we see them again.”

While NorthWood got the majority of its offensive output from Rulli and Payne, Kennedy White scored 12 points with another game-high eight rebounds and two blocked shots for Wawasee despite feeling well under the weather. Jada Carter put up 10 points, and Danielle Jenkins scored just two but tallied four steals and two assists for the visitors.

Kennedy White finds an opening during the first half of Saturday’s game.

“Kennedy White missed the last two days of school puking. Kennedy White was in the locker room at halftime puking. So to see the effort that you saw out of her tonight — that’s impressive. So let’s give her a ton of credit. She was a playmaker tonight for us,” said Carpenter.

“Danielle Jenkins is an energizer bunny. She works hard. She practices hard. She plays hard. This isn’t a one-trick show when you see her in a game; this is how she is at all times on the basketball floor. She gives full-out effort. She wants to make things happen. Sometimes we work on her decision-making, but, I’ll tell you what, I give her props tonight because I thought she made great decisions tonight.”

NorthWood improves to 17-2 with the team’s 13th-straight win — the Panthers haven’t lost since a contest at sixth-rated Norwell back in November — and a 5-0 mark in the NLC. NorthWood returns to action against visiting Tippecanoe Valley Tuesday before traveling to Northridge Jan. 18. The Panthers will wrap their conference schedule at home verus Goshen Jan. 25.

“We’re 5-0 in the NLC. Two games to go, but there’s a long way to go,” said Yoder. “Playing at Northridge and then playing a really good Goshen team, there’s nobody counting any chickens over here. We’ll see.”

Wawasee dips to 6-11 overall with its third straight loss and an 0-5 mark in NLC play. The Warriors will return to action at Columbia City Tuesday, then face another NLC road game at Elkhart Memorial next Saturday.

“The girls are coming and they’re working hard and they’re responding. So they’re pushing to their limit,” said Carpenter. “Now we just need to keep expanding their limit a little further. And they know that, and they want us to push them.”

Wawasee’s JV won a down-to-the-wire thriller in Saturday’s first game, meanwhile. A number of missed free throws plagued NorthWood’s JV late, and Ryliegh Cole’s 3-pointer at the buzzer lifted the Warriors to a  30-29 win. Becca Smith scored eight points, and Amari Peete finished with six to lead the JV Warriors. NorthWood’s junior varsity was paced by seven points from Aaliyah Bonner and five apiece from Sydney Martin and Savannah Lane.