North Union’s Miles Hall (white) drives to the basket during a regular season home game against Jonathan Alder earlier this season. The Wildcat tallied 23 points in the team’s win over Elgin.
(Journal-Tribune photo by Aleksei Pavloff)
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There was some good and bad to how North Union played in the first half of Wednesday’s regular-season finale at Elgin.
The good news for the Wildcats was the offense produced 42 points.
But on the other end of the spectrum, NU Head Coach Ryan Grose was not particularly happy with how the defense played in allowing the Comets to score 30 points.
Within the first few minutes of the third quarter, everything came into sync for the Wildcats as the offense still produced and the defense did a much better job of stopping the Comets.
As a result when the final seconds ticked away North union posted a 79-55 victory.
“We got off to a slow start and Elgin was playing harder than us,” junior Miles Hall said. “We made adjustments, came out fired up and played with more intensity.”
“We just didn’t start with the urgency we needed,” Grose said. “Having the same approach against whoever you are playing is the challenge.”
North Union’s 12-point halftime cushion turned into a 24-point lead in less than four minutes after the intermission.
Max Parish hit a jumper from the foul circle and added a free throw just 11 seconds into the third quarter.
That led to a 10-point run that included a three-point goal by Hall and a 52-30 advantage.
After Elgin’s Nate Freshour stopped the run with an inside basket, but Nolan Draper dropped in two free throws and Parish scored on a layup and the Wildcats led 56-32 with 4:19 left in the third quarter.
“Our defense created the offense and that was not happening in the first half,” Hall said.
“We were finding higher percentage shots and that starts from our defense,” Grose said. “Working to get a better shot has been a challenge for us this year.”
North Union continued to play well and finished the third quarter with a 9-2 run.
Hall hit a pair of field goals, including a trey, and Parish also had two field goals that included a dunk as the Wildcats led 68-41 with one quarter left to play.
With the bench players getting the majority of playing time in the fourth quarter, North Union got three-point field goals from Nickolas Hajjar and Jaxson Jolliff to finish off a 17th win of the season against five losses.
Parish and Hall each had 11 points in the first half as North Union led 22-14 at the end of the first quarter and 42-30 at the half. The duo tied for high-game scoring honors with 23 points each while Draper finished with 11 markers. Parish also had nine rebounds and Tyler Krebehenne snared six caroms.
North Union won the junior varsity game 51-23. Hajjar netted 16 points to pace the Wildcats.
North Union now turns its attention to the second season, better known as the Central District tournament.
The Wildcats open tournament play on Feb. 27 at home against Mount Gilead.
Before thinking about playing Mount Gilead, Grose did want to take a little time to look back on the regular season.
“We’ve had a great regular season, and I don’t want to take that for granted,” Grose said. “That season has earned us the right to play at home and now we have to reset our focus.”
North Union
Draper 3-4-11, Keever 2-2-6, Parish 10-1-23, Hajjar 1-0-3, Davis 1-0-2, Krebehenne 2-2-6, Hall 8-3-23, Bennett 1-0-2, Jolliff 1-0-3. Three-point goals: Hall 4, Draper, Parish, Hajjar, Jolliff.
Elgin
Donaven 4-1-10, Helms 2-0-6, Castillo 4-2-14, Lust 3-0-6, Freshour 6-0-14, Shepard 3-0-6, French 0-1-1. Three-point goals: Castillo 2, Helms 2, Donaven.