The Northwestern High School girls basketball team defeated Cumberland Thursday night 48-27 to remain at 6-0 in the Heart O' North conference and 7-2 overall.
The Tigers will play their final first-round conference game at home Thursday against the only other HON team with a perfect conference record -- Hayward. The winner of the match will be in sole possession of first place in the conference.
"The girls will work at getting ready for Hayward on Thursday night," said Shawn Leith, head coach of the Tigers. "This is where we wanted to be at this point in the season, and if we want to beat Hayward, we need to play great defense and play as a team."
NHS jumped out to a 17-8 first-quarter lead over Cumberland behind two 3-pointers by Cassidy Stolzman and six points by Lindsay Taipale. Stolzman hit another 3-pointer in the second quarter, and Carinda Larson had a three for 14 points in the second, giving the Tigers a 31-14 halftime lead.
The Tigers continued to play well in the third, taking a 42-18 third quarter lead and finishing up with the 48-27 victory at Cumberland.
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"Overall we played good defense holding them to only 27 points," Leith said. "We work hard on our defense every day at practice and expect a consistently tough defensive effort each night."
Taipale led NHS in scoring with 14, and Stolzman added 12 points. Marissa Pooler finished with seven points, Anna Morgan had four, Larson had three, and Taylor Prior, Lindsay Garay, Kelcee Janigo and Jacklyn Amys all added two points each.
