Published: November 17, 2008 11:54 pm         

North Central girls basketball knocks off Rockville 53-45

Farmersburg — North Central outscored Rockville 29-12 in the second and third periods Monday night and got even for the season in high school girls basketball at 2-2 with a 53-45 victory.

The host team trailed the Rox 13-10 at the first stop, but took the lead at 18-16 midway through the second stanza and never trailed again as Katie Brown hit a 3-pointer at the buzzer to give NC a 24-20 lead at the halftime break.

The Thunderbirds took a 39-25 lead into the final quarter, and still led by 10 points with 3 minutes, 37 seconds to play as both teams were kept busy shooting free throws in the final eight minutes. Maria Drake, Hannah Randolph and Amber Kemp all fouled out for the winners.

Rockville took its early lead by hitting 7 of 11 free throws in the first frame, but had just one field goal in the second period and was 18 of 36 at the line for the night.

North Central cashed 19 of 33 free throws and had a 15-12 edge in field goals and had one more trey than the Rox.

Brown led the winners in scoring with 14 points while Jocelyn Boyll had a double-double with 11 points and 15 rebounds, helping NC to a 32-26 edge on the boards..

Kieran McMullen paced with 1-2 Rox with 15 points and Lindsey Greene had 12. Beth Mahurin got into early foul trouble and hit her only field goal and grabbed eight rebounds in limited playing time.

NC coach Gretchen Brown liked the intensity and effort of her team playing its fourth game in eight days.

“We played hard and picked up fouls. I was glad we had our good third quarter and lead,” she said.

“Megan [Stone] and Jocelyn had good games and the guards did a good job of getting them the ball. We still have some work to do . . . and cut down on the turnovers,” she added.

North Central played its first game at home and will be back in the NC gym for a Tri-River Conference game Saturday afternoon with Eminence. Rockville has a Wabash River Conference home game with Riverton Parke on Friday.



ROCKVILLE (45) — Mahurin 1-1 2-3 4, Vukovits 2-3 2-6 7, Harper 1-2 2-6 5, McMullen 5-21 4-6 15, Burgess 0-0 0-1 0, Greene 2-6 8-12 12, White 1-2 0-2 2, Carrington 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 12-35 FG, 18-36 FT 53 TP

NORTH CENTRAL (53) — Stone 1-5 4-6 6, Boyll 3-7 5-11 11, Kemp 3-3 0-0 6, Brown 3-10 6-8 14, Drake 3-5 1-3 9, Randolph 2-5 3-5 7, Hester 0-1 0-0 0, Goetz 0-0 0-0 0, Woodsmall 0-0 0-0 0, Irwin 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 15-36 FG, 19-33 FT, 53 TP

Rockville 13 7 5 20 — 45

North Central 10 14 15 14 — 53

3-point goals — Rockville 3-8 (Vukovits 1-1, Harper 1-1, McMullen 1-4, Greene 0-2), North Central 4-10 (Brown 2-7, Drake 2-3). Total fouls: R†22, NC 30. Fouled out — Kemp, Drake, Randolph. Turnovers: R 20, NC 25. Rebounds — R 26 (Mahurin 8, McMullen 7), NC 32 (Boyll 15, Stone 6).

JV — Rockville 38 (Jerica Carrington 15, Natalie Donovan 12), North Central 27 (Kayla Irwin 8, Ariel Hester 8).

Next — North Central (2-2) plays host to Eminence for a Saturday afternoon game. Rockville (1-2) plays host to Riverton Parke on Friday.