The Hometown Treasure February 2013 | Page 37

Warriors Capture Fourth Consecutive NECC Tourney Title By Jerry Hostetler On Saturday, January 12 the West- tournament championship. view Warriors captured their fourth The Warriors drew a bye in the consecutive Northeast Corner Confer- tournament and met the Hamilton ence Tournament championship with a Marines in the quarter-final round heart-stopping 52-49 overtime victory at Hamilton on Wednesday, January over a very gritty and hard-fighting 9. Westview dispatched the Marines Fairfield Falcon team. with an impressive 86-33 victory. Kyle Senior Kyle Miller led the way Miller led the way for the Warriors, for the Warriors with blazing shootscoring 23 points, followed by Jordyn ing beyond the arc. Miller hit 5 three Bontrager with 14 points and Chandler pointers to go along with one regular Aspy with 10. field goal and three free throws to finWestview’s next stop in their ish the night with 22 points. Miller’s championship run was West Noble. hot-shooting started with 1:50 to go The Chargers had also drawn a bye in the second quarter when he canned in the tournament and were coming his first three. The half-time break cer- off an easy victory at Lakeland two tainly had no affect on his hot shooting nights earlier and they were bringing as Miller came out in the third quaran undefeated 10-0 record into semiter hitting four more 3’s in the first final action. The Warriors also brought six minutes of the period. Miller and an impressive 9-1 mark into the game. teammate Nic Raber also contributed West Noble got off to a good start outin a big way for Coach Rob Yoder’s War- scoring Westview in the first quarter riors at the free throw line by making 16-15. The Warriors outscored the key freebies down the stretch in reguChargers in the second quarter 13-6 to lation. Miller hit two free throws with take a 28-22 lead into the locker room 12 seconds remaining in the fourth at half-time. West Noble tightened the quarter to pull the Warriors within one margin after the half, outscoring Westof the Falcons. After Fairfield’s Marcus view 12-10 in the third period narrowRhodes made one of two free throws to ing the Warrior margin to just a four give the Falcons a two point lead with point lead. Westview then outscored just 8.8 seconds on the clock in regula- West Noble in the final quarter 21-16 tion, Westview inbounded, Nic Raber to cruise to a 59-50 win, giving the was fouled and went to the charity Warriors a berth in the championship stripe with 6.6 seconds to go in regula- at Westview against long-time rival tion and made two huge free throws Fairfield. Jordyn Bontrager turned in to tie the game. Fairfield’s desperation his best performance offensively of his shot at the buzzer fell well short of the varsity career against West Noble with mark sending the game to overtime. a personal high 19 points with 10 from In overtime Fairfield scored first, the field and 9 from the charity stripe. then Westview scored three unanNic Raber also helped the Warrior swered points to take a 47-45 lead with cause scoring 16 points and sophomore 2:15 to go in the overtime period. The Chandler Aspy chipped in 11. Falcons pulled within one as 6-5 center Kyle Miller was 9 for 12 from beBrad Lantz hit one of two free throws yond the three-point line for a sizzling with 1:51 in the O.T.. Jordyn Bontrager 75% shooting for the tourney, while then iced the Warrior win by convertJordyn Bontrager led the way at the ing two free throws with 6.9 seconds charity stripe by hitting 17 of 20 free on the clock, giving Westview the throws for 85%. See inside front cover for NECC Championship Photo. Sophomore Chandler Aspy takes time to smile at the crowd while cutting the net after an exciting win over Fairfield on Sat., Jan. 12 to win the NECC Tourney Title. Junior Jordyn Bontrager cuts across the court looking for an open teammate in the exciting game against Fairfield for the NECC Tourney Title. Sports photos by Abby Wenger Senior Nic Raber gets the tip-off for the Warriors to the sound of a roaring crowd in the exciting game against Fairfield for the NECC Tourney Title. Varsity Boys Basketball The Hometown Treasure · February ‘13 · pg 35