NEW PARIS — National Trail couldn’t slow down visiting Northeastern (Ind.) on Saturday, Jan. 2, as the visiting Knights used several scoring runs to pull away for a 56-38 win.
Northeastern closed out the first quarter with a 12-3 run to turn a 10-8 deficit into a 20-13 lead.
In the second quarter, it was a 9-0 run to make it a 29-14 game.
Trail saw the Knights open the third quarter with a 10-0 run to push the lead to 39-17 and eventually lead by as many as 25 at 49-24.
“I thought we played hard. I really thought we competed well. I just thought there were some stretches there where they got some easy baskets and we just couldn’t score,” Trail coach James Byrd said. “We weren’t making shots at that point and they got away from us a little bit but overall I thought we played, I thought we played pretty good. That’s a good team.”
Molly Skinner paced the Blazers with 12 points, all on three-pointers. J’da Jackson, Lexi Benedict and Skyler Ward each added seven for Trail, which fell to 4-3 on the season.
“I thought Molly Skinner was good again,” Byrd said.
Trail allowed 14 offensive rebounds in the first half and 15 for the game.
“They got a lot of skill. They’re a really good team,” Byrd said.
Turnover also hurt the Blazers.
“Obviously, you can’t turn the ball over as many times as we did there. Again, I thought it was just in stretches,” Byrd said. “I think there were three straight possessions when we turned the ball over and they got easy baskets, and you just can’t do that against a good team.”
Trail is scheduled to play a pair of Cross County Conference games this week. They will host Franklin-Monroe on Thursday and Covington on Saturday.
“We got some big games coming up. Games that are winnable but games that we can lose. That’s the way I think about every game,” Byrd said.
