North Olmsted Eagles Use Strong Fourth Quarter to Defeat Normandy 44-40

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The North Olmsted Eagles used a big fourth quarter to defeat Normandy 44-40 tonight at home. The Eagles survived a wild last second comeback to hold on for the win, after a comeback of their own to start the final quarter.

North Olmsted head coach Nolan Turpin had this to say about his teams fight in the fourth quarter to come from behind for the big GLC win, “We got stagnant in the third and started to settle and we couldn’t rebound which led to sloppy defense. So, that fourth quarter was more about motion and getting the ball inside to force and kick it, and also step into shots which helped.”

The Eagles were led by Mia Donald with 13 as Julia Tahsin scored 12 and Taylor Wengstrom with 10. Taylor had some huge plays in this game to help turn the tide a few times to say the least. Shelley Gray had 7 while Katie Strong finished the scoring with 2. Sarah Pullin, Maddie O’Boyle, Molly Tabar, Rose Lane and Tesneem Shahin all played quality minutes tonight as well.

Turpin talked about the big shots from Tahsin and Wengstrom, “They are both awesome kids who work really hard at hitting shots and being a consistent reliable shooter, and it shows.”

The Normandy Invaders were led by Zyley Minich with Minich with 15, the incredible freshman tore it up for 3 quarters before the Eagle defense held her to zero points in the fourth. Abby Basinger sunk two from deep to finish with 6 points While Izzy Akin tallied 7. Samantha Perdue and Izzy Akin each finished with 5.

It was a fast start for both teams as Normandy got out to a 8-7 lead, as Mia Donald kept the Eagles in it with 6 during that stretch. The quarter ended with North Olmsted on top 12-10 as Shelley Gray used her speed to go coast to coast to finish it.

The second quarter looked like it may be a clunker, as we only say 4 combined points at the 3:30 remaining mark as Perdue scored for Normandy while Gray had the only Eagle points. Then, it was 3 plus minutes of fast and furious scoring as Taylor Wengstrom became red hot with two from deep for 6 points while Donald dominated the paint for 4 more. The Eagles used this to pull out to a 26-19 lead at halftime.

The third quarter was a completely different story for the Eagles, as they were held to just a Julia Tahsin three pointer as their only points. It was all Invaders as they outscored the Eagles 14-3 in the quarter as they were led by Minich who went off for 8 in the frame to give the Invaders a 33-29 lead heading into the final 8 minutes of the game.

The Eagles were unfazed as they had quick buckets by Katie Strong and Mia Donald to tie it at 33, before another Donald bucket gave them the lead at 35-33. They wouldn’t surrender it, even after Normandy tied it at 35. Four straight from Tahsin increased the lead to 39-35, before a Wengstrom 3 ball increased it to 42-35. The Eagles held on for the 44-40 victory.