BOYS BB: Tigers battle, but fall shy to Indians

Jan. 29—Northwestern's boys basketball team went toe-to-toe with Sectional 20 rival Twin Lakes, but came up a bucket short in a matchup of Hoosier Conference teams from opposite divisions Friday night on the Tigers' floor.

Northwestern trailed 50-43 just past the midway mark of the fourth quarter, then charged back in the final minutes to take a 56-55 lead with :27.1 left, but Twin Lakes hit a 3-pointer down the stretch to take the last lead. Northwestern had the final shot in the final 10 seconds but couldn't score and the Indians emerged with a 58-56 victory.

"Our kids played hard, we executed a lot of things late in the game well," NW coach Jim Gish said. "They were able to hit a shot late in the fourth quarter that put them up two. We had an opportunity to tie it or go ahead and just didn't hit the shot."

The Indians led 19-18 after a quarter, then after halftime pushed a narrow lead out to eight points and made Northwestern chase them for most of the second half. Twin Lakes led 44-37 after three quarters.

"Probably the biggest turning point of the game was the beginning of the third quarter," Gish said. Northwestern didn't have many turnovers in the game "but we had four in about a two-minute stretch. That was a determining factor in the ballgame. They went from up one, 31-30, to up eight, 38-30. That was just a key stretch in the game."

Eli Edwards led Northwestern (5-8) with 21 points, Koen Berry scored 17 and Mario Reed 14. Twin Lakes, which leads the HC West at 3-0, improved to 9-5.

"Our kids played hard," Gish said. "They showed a lot of resilience in the game. They battled back in a tough game where we got down as many as eight against a good basketball team and had a chance to win it at the end."