It all came down to the third period for the Northwestern girls’ basketball team last week, as they battled league foe Graham in CBC Mad River Division action.

The Warriors used a 12-5 third quarter to make the difference in the game, as Northwestern survived for a 46-44 victory over the Falcons. The rest of the game was played even, as the two teams battled to get the advantage in the conference.

With the win, Northwestern goes to 1-0 in the conference, as it was also their first win of the season. Graham fell to 0-5 with the defeat.

“I have been preaching to the girls we have to improve each time out, and it starts in practice,” said Northwestern coach Aaron Stewart. “We start 3 sophomores so unfortunately we are young but we have to mature quickly.”

“Through the first 3 games, we have 57 turnovers, and last night we only had 11. I challenged the girls that we need more output.”

Abby Zerkle was the force that led the Warriors to the win. She scored 28 points including four three-point shots and 10 free throws to give the Warriors the win. Abbie Grieser added eight points for Northwestern, while Rachel White scored six points off the bench.

“Before the season our point guard (Abbie) to find the open man, now we need her to become more of a scorer,” Stewart said. “(Tonight) she had eight points and six assists, she stepped up. One of our girls came off bench to hit big free throws down the stretch. We are getting closer but we aren’t there yet.”

Northwestern survived for the win despite hitting only 16-31 free throws, and missed probably four layups

“I also tell the girls that 60% of our games will be won or lost at line,” Stewart said. “We were lucky that Graham was 4-12.”

Northwestern led 46-41 left with three seconds left and Graham hit a three at buzzer to make the score look closer that it was.

“We have changed a few things defensively and the girls are getting better, but we’re not there yet,” the coach said. ”We let one slip away last week to Bexley, but the girls came back strong tonight.”

Northwestern Boys Basketball- the Warriors boys’ team lost to Greeneview 52-40 last week, as they fell behind 29-24 at the half.

Kurt Waters led Warriors with 12 points in the loss.

On Friday night, the Warriors bounced back from that loss to defeat Graham 67-56 in a CBC Mad River Division contest.

“The win was a good win for our kids, we came out and played great defense,” coach Gerald Embry said.

Jalen Minney led with 18 points, Waters added 17 and 11 rebounds, and Ryan Cleland had 11 points and eight assists.

“We have been talking about this for a while, our goal is to win the league. We had a setback in the first week and this was a must win to reach our goal. The kids had the mindset.”

Northwestern was up 18 points at one point, but the Falcons fought back to make it close.

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