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Dunlap leads with 16, Redinger adds 14
BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS
Sports Editor, RTC
ARGOS — Kaiden Hanley scored a game-high 17 points to lead three players in double figures and also had a crucial steal in the final 10 seconds as the North Miami girls basketball team held off Argos 51-47 at Phil Weybright Gymnasium Monday.
Logan Mouser added 11 points, including two free throws with 3.8 seconds left that made it a two-possession game and completed the scoring. Freshman Laney Musall had 10 points off the bench for the Lady Warriors (10-3).
Emma Dunlap scored eight of her team-high 16 points in the fourth quarter for Argos (6-7). Samantha Redinger, in her fourth game back after a seven-game absence due to a broken wrist, added 14.
North Miami made 13 of 19 free throws while the Lady Dragons dropped in 7 of 20.
“I don’t know,” Argos coach Scott Jennings said of the foul line woes. “We shoot them in practice. I think it’s just a focus, a confidence thing, especially early in the game. Sam misses three early in the game, and that’s not like her at all. She’s a good 70 to 80 percent free throw shooter, and she missed quite a few that game. Emma stepped up there and missed a couple. And a lot of those were front end of a one-and-one, so if we’re going to beat good teams, we’ve got to knock down free throws.”
Argos never led in the second half. They did cut what had been a nine-point deficit down to 48-47 on Dunlap’s fourth 3-pointer with 32 seconds left.
Allison Bowman’s free throw with 19.3 seconds left made it 49-47.
Argos called a 30-second timeout with 12.1 seconds left. Dunlap sprinted from the left corner to receive the inbounds pass in the right corner, but Hanley poked away her pass intended for Baleigh Binkley.
Musall recovered the loose ball and hit ahead to Mouser, and Dunlap committed her fifth foul with 3.8 seconds left. Mouser then iced the game from the line.
“They’re a good team,” Jennings said of North Miami. “They’re well-coached. They had the Mouser girl back tonight. She hasn’t played in several games, and so that makes them even a little bit stronger. But they’re 10-3 right now. I knew it would be a battle tonight, I knew it was a battle going in. I thought we competed. There were times we just didn’t focus when we needed to, gave up some offensive baskets that we needed some stops on. We had a few turnovers that were costly and then hitting the free throws.
“But they’re a good team. They’re going to win a lot of games, and they’re going to go far in the tournament.”
North Miami scored the first six points and led 15-7 after one quarter. They still led 19-12 in the second quarter when Argos went on a 9-0 run. Ellie Bollenbacher hit a 10-foot jumper from the left baseline, Bella Stults put back her own miss, Redinger hit a 3 from the right wing off an Ava Stackhouse assist, and Binkley hit Redinger on a back door cut to give Argos their first laed at 21-19 with 3:12 left in the half.
North Miami answered back with a 7-0 run, highlighted by a Mouser trey, and led 26-23 at halftime.
Redinger hit a 3 on Argos’ first possession of the second half to tie the game, but North Miami followed with a 12-3 spurt that included two Musall buckets, a spinner in the lane from Mouser and a Molly Freeman layup to make it 38-29.
Argos closed within 39-36 thanks to another Bollenbacher midrange jumper, a Stults short jumper, a Morgyn Barcus 19-footer and a Redinger free throw.
But Musall hit another long 2-pointer with 4:57 left, and when she was fouled in the act of shooting a 3-pointer and drained all three ensuing free throws, North Miami led 46-38 with 2:54 left.
This is the first of at least eight – and potentially nine, if they advance in the Bi-County Tournament – games for Argos in a 19-day span. That includes a game at Class 1A, No. 9 Bethany Christian on Thursday. Argos and Bethany Christian are both 2-0 in the Hoosier Plains and the last two undefeated teams in conference play.
“I’m hoping for three games in Bi-County,” Jennings said. “We don’t have an easy game on the schedule from here on out. We’re going to have to come ready to play every night and not take anybody lightly, and we’re going to go back to the drawing board a little bit and work hard until Thursday and hopefully get a win Thursday. So we’re not taking anybody lightly. We’ve got a battle ahead of us (in) the month of January.”
North Miami 51, Argos 47
NORTH MIAMI (51) (10-3)
Allison Bowman 2 3-4 8, Logan Mouser 3 4-6 11, Emily Smith 0 0-0 0, Kaiden Hanley 8 1-2 17, Molly Freeman 2 1-2 5, Ellie Musselman 0 0-0 0, Laney Musall 3 4-5 10
TEAM: 18 13-19 51
ARGOS (47) (6-7)
Samantha Redinger 3 6-14 14, Baleigh Binkley 1 0-1 2, Emma Dunlap 6 0-2 16, Ava Stackhouse 0 0-0 0, Bella Stults 4 0-0 8, Morgyn Barcus 1 0-0 2, Ellie Bollenbacher 2 1-3 5
TEAM: 17 7-20 47
Three-point field goals:
North Miami 2 (Mouser, Bowman),
Argos 6 (Dunlap 4, Redinger 2)
Total fouls: North Miami 15, Argos 19
Fouled out: Dunlap (ARG), :03.8, fourth
Turnovers: North Miami 8, Argos 13
Score by quarters
North Miami 15 11 12 13 – 51
Argos 7 16 10 14 – 47
