By Greg Keim
An effort put forth by the Northridge High School boys basketball team Thursday night didn’t produce a win, but it’s the type of play Coach Jason Ridge would like to see continue.
Turning up the defensive pressure allowed the Raiders to launch a comeback over the final 4:49 to nearly erased a 13-point deficit.
The Penn Kingsmen drilled six free throws over the final 0:44 to defeat the Raiders, 50-46, in Middlebury.
“I’m extremely proud of the effort,” Ridge said. “If we gave this kind of effort every night we would not be 2-9.”
Northridge trailed 42-29 with 4:49 left to play.
“Our kids have been in this kind of situation before and have not always been able to come back,” the coach said. “Our defense allowed us to make a run at them.
“We told them late in the game they had played way too good to lose by double digits.”
The Raider defense helped force the Kingsmen into 16 turnovers, six in the fourth period.
“You have to give Northridge a lot of credit,” Penn coach Al Rhodes said. “We had them on the ropes several times, but they kept coming back.
“Defense is what allowed them to get back in the game. We had way too many turnovers caused either by their pressure or our poor decisions.
“The Northridge players put more individual pressure on us than any team we have played. Coach Ridge does a fine job teaching defense. That is the reason they were so good last season.”
Northridge returns to Northern Lakes Conference action with a home game against Elkhart Memorial (8-5, 2-1 NLC) on Saturday. Penn (9-4) hosts South Bend St. Joseph’s (9-2) tonight in a Northern Indiana Conference contest.
Six-foot junior Malcolm Thurmond sparked the Raiders in the fourth quarter, scoring 12 of his team-high 13 points.
“Malcolm has had a lot of games like that this season,” Ridge said. “He has been a very good one-quarter player.
“He has had a lot of good first or fourth quarters. I don’t mean that in a bad way. But if he ever puts four quarters together it is going to be something to see.”
Thurmond hit a short range jump shot at 4:29 of the fourth to begin the Raiders’ rally. He canned two free throws at 2:48 and another jump shot at 2:14 to make the score 42-35.
“Malcolm did an excellent job of taking the ball to the basket,” Ridge said.
Five-eleven senior Chris Chaffee made two freebies at 1:51 for the Kingsmen to extend the lead to nine points.
Thurmond added two more tosses from the charity stripe at 1:27 and 5-10 sophomore Gavin Blyly a pair at 1:14 for a 44-39 count.
Northridge then got a three-point play from 6-1 senior Craig Thomas with 0:49 remaining and the Raiders were down 44-42.
“Blyly and Thomas did a good job of taking the ball to the action,” Ridge said. “We did more of that tonight and I hope that is a trend that continues.”
Penn then iced the game at the free-throw line as Chaffee converted five freebies and 6-5 senior Jordan Brady two over the final 0:44.
“We hit our free throws down the stretch,” Rhodes said.
Brady finished with a game-high 18 points.
“We had a hard time getting him the ball in the post, but we got it in there just often enough,” Rhodes said.
Thomas netted 11 points and 5-8 junior Luke Davis 10 for the Raiders.
