PERRYSBURG — For the second time this season, the matchup between Perrysburg and
Northview was decided by five points.
But again, despite Kelsea Newman’s game-high 24 points, the Yellow Jackets fell short
49-44, and Northview walked away from Perrysburg’s gym as Northern Lakes League
champions. PHOTO
GALLERY
Trailing
47-44, ’Jackets senior Taylor Knight had a chance to knot the game with a triple
from the left wing with less than 30 seconds remaining, but the ball came up
short hitting the front of the iron, and the Wildcats closed the contest by
converting on their final two free throws.
“It was a great game, both of them were,” Perrysburg head coach Todd Sims said
referring back to their first encounter on Jan. 13. “If you could bottle that
and show people how good girls basketball is, they would be impressed.
“Players were tired, we fought and we fought and we had a shot to tie it,” Sims
added. “You couldn’t ask for more. It didn’t go in, that happens, that’s the
game. That’s basketball.”
Northview (17-1, 12-0) was led to its NLL title-clinching win by seniors Miriam
Justinger and J.J Jessing with 15 and 12 points, respectively.
“I didn’t think we’d do that honestly,” Northview head coach Jerry Sigler said. “I
felt like we would probably struggle here and we may not win it, then we would
have to go on the road and try and win it at Napoleon or (Bowling Green) and
that wasn’t going to be pretty.”
Justinger a 6-foot guard, who will play at Kent State next year, and Jessing a 6-3
center, who will play at Western Michigan next year, were the main focus of
Perrysburg (14-4, 9-3), but 6-1 freshman Maddie Cole was also a scoring threat
as she added 10 points for the Wildcats.
“It’s tough. They’re 17-1 for a reason,” Sims said. “They’re hard for people to match
up with. But we played pretty well defensively.
“I just think that we’re very competitive with (Northview),” he added. “But they just
have a little more scoring sometimes … they get that third person in there.”

On the other hand, Perrysburg was only able to get double-digit production from
Newman’s 24 points and Becca Tudor, who scored 10 points.
Emily Treece and Sarah Baer were held to six and four points, respectively.
“We knew Kelsea was going to get hers … beyond that it was going to have to be the
rest of their team that was going to have to contribute,” Sigler said.
“I don’t think anything cost us. It was just one of those things, we had an open shot
and it didn’t go in,” Sims said.
Northview’s offense, though it committed 16 turnovers, was in a rhythm all night as
it shot 17-of-32 (53 percent) from the field. All 17 of the field goals came
from inside the 3-point line.
“If we could get the ball inside and out, that we could get some things done,” Sigler
said.
“What we tried to do is put people on the perimeter where that person could kick it
back out where they’d have to defend. What ended up there was (Jessing) got easy
buckets,” Sigler added.
Perrysburg held the lead just once in the game, 3-2, 1:07 into the contest.
Northview took a 23-19 lead at halftime as led by as many as eight points (41-33)
with 4:54 remaining in the final quarter.
But Newman began to bring the ’Jackets back by hitting her fourth 3-pointer followed
by two free throws after a Wildcats basket, cutting the deficit to 43-38.
After another basket by Northview, Perrysburg used a 6-0 run to close the gap to
45-44, but the Jackets’ got no closer as the Wildcats went 4–for-4 on their
free throws in the final 28 seconds.
“It was a very, very competitive game. They just made one or two more plays than we
did,” Sims said.
Northview won the junior varsity game 41-25. Katie Dunphy led the ’Jackets with seven
points.
NORTHVIEW 49, PERRYSBURG 44
NORTHVIEW
Mason, 0-0—0; Rose, 2-2—6; Justinger, 4-7—15; Yurjevic, 0-0—0; McCoy, 2-2—6; Cole,
5-0—10; J.J Jessing, 4-4—12; Small, 0-0—0. TOTALS: 17-15—49.
PERRYSBURG
Knight, 0-0—0; Tudor, 3-4—10; Perry, 0-0—0; Gremler, 0-0—0; Treece, 2-2—6; Baer,
1-2—4; Newman, 5-4-2—24. TOTALS: 11-4-10—44.
NORTHVIEW 11 12 12 14 —49
PERRYSBURG 7 12 8 17 —44
Junior varsity: Northview, 41-25.