By CRAIG ADKINS
For The Reporter
NOBLESVILLE – Last Saturday afternoon, the Noblesville Millers hosted the Northrop Bruins from Fort Wayne. The Millers won the past two in the series and had no trouble making it three.
Noblesville snapped a three-game losing streak and got back to winning ways with authority in a 72-42 victory.
Meredith Tippner guided the Millers from the opening tip, scoring 11 in the first for a 20-5 lead.
“Honestly, we’ve lost to really good basketball teams. We lost at Lawrence North by three and had looks to win that. We lost to HSE by two and we were right there,” said Noblesville head coach Donna Buckley.
The Millers kept their feet on the gas in the second, scoring 22 to the Bruins’ eight for a comfortable 42-13 halftime lead.
“Northrop came in here and they’re really good. They didn’t look it, but that was a lot of us playing great defense today,” stated Buckley. “They came in with one loss and that was to Norwell, who’s really good. They could have easily been undefeated coming here. They’ve been ranked in the top 10.”
Noblesville kept taking advantage in the third, pushing away from the Bruins even further with a 63-25 wide margin.
With a running clock for the final 10 minutes of the game, the game was well in hand, getting Noblesville back in the win column, something they had not done since Nov. 18 at Homestead.
Northrop turned the ball over 20 times, 15 of those were Miller steals.
Reagan Wilson was extremely good at facilitating for her teammates, which eventually turned into scoring opportunities for herself.
“There are reasons why she’s a Miss Basketball candidate,” Buckley said. “She can impact the game in so many ways. She can make shots, but she can obviously get everybody else involved. She’s just a phenomenal basketball player and does everything for us and is our leader.”
Northrop (5-2) had three in double digits. Destini Craig led with a team-high 13, while Niya Bell had 11 and Alexis Castator 10. The Bruins play at East Noble on Wednesday.
Noblesville (5-4) will stay at home for their next two games, hosting a feisty Fishers (7-3) squad next Friday and Plainfield (8-1) on Saturday. The Tigers got two wins Saturday in the Evansville North Classic against Castle (40-30) and Decatur Central (68-43).
Tippner led all scorers with 25 and grabbed 10 rebounds and had six steals. Wilson had 16 with six boards, Ava Shoemaker 13 with four rebounds and four assists. C.C. Quigley also had a solid game with 12 and six boards.