Nappanee Advance-News, Volume 135, Number 50, Nappanee, Elkhart County, 15 December 2016 — Page 6

Advance News» Thursday, December 15, 2016

Page A6

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OAT photos Panther senior captain Trey Bilinski muscles his way past Fairfield's Shandon Miller in North Wood's 69-35 pasting of the Falcons. Bilinski scored a season-high 11 points in the win.

Panthers top Westview and Fairfield, remain unbeaten

By Stevf. Sutler Correspondent NAPPANEE / GOSHEN - Vinny Miranda erupted for 38 points, nearly two-thirds of North Wood's JtotaL as the Class 3A No. 1-ranked Panthers edged Gass 2A No. 10 Westville 60-57 on December 6th at The Pit. Later in the week, the Panthers crushed Fairfield 69-35 to remain unbeaten at 3-0. NORTHWOOD 60, WESTVIEW 57 In a battle of unbeatens, the young and talented Westview squad featuring four sophomores and a freshman in the starting lineup came out firing, scoring the first seven points of the game and forcing a timeout by Panther head coach Aaron Wolfe. Miranda with a basket after the timeout and hit another at the 3irst-quarter buzzer as North Wood ■elawed its way back into the game, trailing 12-9 after one period. * A 3-pointer early in the second period by Miranda gave the ■panthers their first lead, and Brad ;J)elio (aka "The Microwave" who pleats things up quickly) came off JJhe bench and nailed a pair of treys to keep North Wood in front. JMiranda finished with 13 points in 3he quarter to counter a combined 33 points from Westview's Cody "Collyer and Elijah Hales, allowing the Panthers to maintain a slim *59-28 advantage at the halftime hreak. £ In the third quarter, Miranda continued to blaze away from *all angles, pouring in 12 more

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points, but the Warriors refused to go away, getting six points in the period from Josh Hostetler to keep it close. Neither team led by more than three points and when the dust had settled, North Wood clung to a narrow three-point lead at 43-40 with eight minutes to play. The Panthers maintained their advantage through much of the fourth quarter but could not pull away thanks to Hales son of Warrior assistant and former IU star Ross Hales and freshman Charlie Yoder, who combined for 15 points. A bucket by the fearless Delio, cool as the other side of the pillow, made it 57-54 North Wood with just over a minute left but Yoder answered to cut the Panther lead to one. After a Panther miss, Delio came up with a huge steal and found Miranda, who was fouled and sank both free throws to make it 59-56 North Wood with 30 seconds remaining. Yoder sank 1 of 2 free throws to cut the lead to 59-57, but Miranda answered with 1 of 2 to put the lead back to three with 15 seconds left and the Panther defense held on to preserve the victory.. Miranda's career-high 38 points led all scorers, and the senior added five rebounds. Delio chipped in with eight points while Luke Zurcher added five points and six boards. Hales paced Westview with 21 points while Collier added 13 in the loss. • NORTHWOOD 60, WESTVIEW 57 At The Pit, Nappanee Westview: 12 28 40 57

Sports

North Wood: 9 29 43 60 NORTHWOOD (60): Luke Zurcher 2 1-2 5, Vinny Miranda 12 12-13 38, Brad Delio 3 0-0 8, DeAndre Smart 0 0-0 2; Caleb Glide 1 0-0 2, Caleb Lung 1 0-0 2, Trey Bilinski 2 1-2 5; Totals: 21 14-17 60 WESTVIEW (57): Charlie Yoder 3 3-7 9, Elijah Hales 7 4-6 21, Ndlin. f Sharick 0 0-0 0, Cody Collyer 6 0-0 13, Josh Hostetler 2 2-2 6, Lucas Yoder 0 0-0 0, Nic Rensberger 4 0-1 8; Totals: 22 9-16 57 3-pointers: North Wood 4 (Miranda 2, Delio 2); Westview 4 (Hales 3, Collyer). NORTHWOOD 69, FAIRFIELD 35 The battle of county rivals North Wood and. Fairfield, billed as the "Battle of the Grand Army of the Republic Highway Classic", was anything but as the Panthers demolished the Falcons on their home floor. The turning point of the game was the National Anthem as North Wood bolted to 17-3 lead after one quarter, thanks to six points apiece from Miranda and Caleb Lung. The Panthers continued to pour it on in the second period as Lung put back two offensive rebound buckets, and Luke Zurcher nailed a pair of 3-pointers, boosting North Wood to a 33-11 halftime advantage. Things got no better after halftime for the Falcons, as the stifling Panther defense continued to throttle Fairfield's leading scorer, Luke Stephens, who did not get a basket until less than 30 seconds

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North Wood's Vinny Miranda sails to the hoop for two of his career-high 38 points in the Panthers'6o-57 win over Westview.

remained in the period. Meanwhile senior captain Trey Bilinski powered his way to nine third-quar-ter points, giving North Wood a 56-24 lead going to the final eight minutes. Wolfe began clearing his bench early in the final stanza," and Terrell Pratcher shined in his brief moments of action, scoring four points, including a spectacular baseline drive as the Panther cruised to the easy win. Lung and Zurcher each scored 17 points to pace North Wood, while Miranda added 14 points and six rebounds, and Bilinski scored a season-high 11 points, as the Panthers shot a blistering 64 percent from the field. Cordell Hofer led the way for Fairfield with nine points, all but two from the free throw line, while Stephens, ■ who came into the game averaging 23 points per contest, was held to just eight. The Panthers (3-0) stay on the road at Jimtown (0-4) on Dec. 13, then travel to Plymouth (5-1) for the Northern Lakes Conference (NLC) opener on Friday, Dec. 16 against the always-tough Pilgrims. • NORTHWOOD 69, FAIRFIELD 35 At Fairfield North Wood: 17 33 56 69 Fairfield: 3 11 24 35 NORTHWOOD (69): Kaden Gongwer 0 0-0 0, Luke Zurcher 5 5-5 17, Vinny Miranda 5 1-2 14, Brad Delio 0 0-0 0, DeAndre Smart 0 0-2 0; Caleb Glick 2 0-0 4, Matt Dutkowski 0 0-0 0, Jared Hoffman 0 0-0 0, Jordan BeMiller 0 0-0 0, Caleb Lung 7 3-4 17, Terrell

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Pratcher 1 2-4 4, Trey Bilinski 5 0-0 11, Luke Holland 0 0-0 0, Nick Beam 0 0-0 0; Totals: 25 13-19 69. FAIRFIELD (35): Isaiah Brown 0 0-0 0, Peyton Faldoe 0 0-0 0, Brady Willard 10-0 2, Luke Stephens 24-4 8; Cordell Hofer 1 7-8 9, Tyshawn Knight 1 2-4 4, Jake Oberlfn O 0-0 0, Skylar Mast 0 0-0 0, Ryan Geer 1 0-0 3, Shandon Miller 3 0-0 6, Zach Munn 0 3-6 3, Caleb Goeglein 0 0-0 0; Totals: 9 16-22 35 3-pointers: NorjhWood 6 (Miranda 3, Zurcher 2, Bilinski); Fairfield 1 (Geer). JV ROUNDUP The North Wood JV team walloped Westview 57-23 but fell to Fairfield 25-20 in an ugly game for their first loss of the season. After a sluggish first quarter against Westview, North Wood outscored its guests 14-4 in the second quarter to break the game open and cruised to the easy win, never allowing more than seven points in a period. Freshman Jason Borkholder led the way with 13 points, including a monster two-handed jam on a breakaway late in the game that sent the North Wood bench and the Panther student section into a frenzy. Luke Holland added nine points, all in the third quarter, and Terrell Pratcher and Jordan BeMiller chipped in with seven each. Against Fairfield, neither team could throw it in the ocean from the beach, as the Panthers led by two points or less at all three stops before being outscored 10-4 in the final period. The JV team is 3-0 on the season.