NorthWood’s Kate Rulli hustles in the hardware to her teammates after the Panthers beat Knox, 43-30, to win the Class 3-A Jimtown Regional Saturday night. (Photos by Mike Deak)

ELKHART – The future spouses of these NorthWood girls basketball players are going to be in big trouble.

Long memories up and down the Panthers lineup created a will to win more so than most realized Saturday. And that’s just what they needed.

NorthWood ground out a 43-30 win over Knox in the championship round of the Class 3-A Jimtown Regional Saturday night, and used a lot of bad memories to get there.

NorthWood’s Reagan Hartman shadows Knox’s Megan Bolen.

“This means a lot,” senior Maddy Payne said. “You just can’t even explain this feeling. It’s just so much fun, and to be doing it with the people that I am, I love my coaching staff and I love my teammates. I wouldn’t ask for it any other way. Especially after we lost in this round in volleyball, it means that much more for us.”

Payne took the role of go-to in the post Saturday night. After Knox watched Kate Rulli burn Marian for 17 points in the morning game, Payne stepped up in the fourth quarter. The senior scored six of her team-high 10 points. It was back-to-back baskets from Payne that pushed NorthWood to a 37-26 lead and a huge sigh of relief.

Rulli finished with nine points and Alea Minnich had eight points, but it was some of the dirty work that was just as important for NorthWood’s first regional title since 2005.

Karlie Fielstra hit 5-7 free throws, all of those coming late in the fourth quarter. Reagan Hartman didn’t make the scoring column, but her perimeter defense on Megan Bolen frustrated the point guard enough to slow her to just nine points on two field goals before fouling out in frustration to open the fourth quarter.

Bre Wise also didn’t jump out of the scorebook, ending with five points. But after scoring just 47 points the entire season and cracking five points only three times, it was a welcomed addition. What was more important was her contributions elsewhere, taking a charge, grabbing four rebounds, even running the point after Hartman and Kendal Miller both fouled out in the fourth quarter.

NorthWood head coach Adam Yoder won his first girls basketball regional title, the program’s first since 2005.

“My role on this team is doing the little things, and I enjoy that,” Wise said. “I don’t need to score a lot. I just like taking charges and mixing it up getting rebounds. I like those big moments where the crowd gets super hyped.”

NorthWood started the game on an incredible run, scoring the game’s first 13 points over the first 9:21 of the contest. Knox (25-2) had chipped away and got the score down to 20-15 in the third before NorthWood scored 10 of the next 14 points, Miller with a pair of huge buckets during the run.

In earning its first regional title since 2005, NorthWood also won its 26th game, the most any team in the storied history of the program has ever won. The team reached the final after avenging a loss to Marian during the regular season with a 44-38 win in the regional semis Saturday.

An emotional Adam Yoder let the tears of joy run hugging anyone and everyone as the celebration exploded on Jerry Cook Court. His words about his first regional title were predictable.

“It’s amazing, I’m just so proud of our kids,” Yoder said. “Karlie Fielstra made some big-time free throws in both games. She is just such a great kid, I was so happy for her. We withstood a lot of problems. We were fouling all over the place. We kept defending our tails off. As ugly as it looked on offense at times, they couldn’t score. And we scored enough to get by.”

NorthWood (26-3) will head to LaPorte next Saturday for the Class 3-A Semi-state, where it will face Benton Central (26-3) at 1 p.m. EST. The winner will play in two weeks at Banker’s Life Fieldhouse against either Brownstown Central or Salem.

NorthWood’s Bre Wise rips the ball away from Knox’s Felicity Olejniczak.