‘Meant to happen’: Northeastern girls basketball ends season with more to prove, highest of expectations

HAGERSTOWN, Ind. — Cody Dudley had one more timeout left, so he used it. There were 2.1 seconds left on the clock, and Northeastern trailed Union County 41-34 in Friday’s sectional semifinal game.

The outcome was inevitable, but the game was not over. The time remaining, while not enough to give the Knights a chance to win, was enough to run one more play. Enough to get one play better.

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“Our culture is we never quit,” Dudley said. “I know the game was out of reach and out of hand, but (the timeout) was basically to tell them I love them, I’m proud of them and as long as there’s time on the clock, we’re going to keep playing.”

The Knights didn’t need the full minute. Their timeout was quick but certainly not without pain. Dudley said what he needed to say, and his players were in position — biting their lips to keep the emotion in — well before Union County broke its huddle.

“Finish until the time runs out. There’s no reason not to,” junior Addisen Mastriano said of that final message. “We came here for a reason, so we’re going to finish it, whether it goes our way or not.”

The Knights’ final play, like the timeout, was quick and, again, had its fair share of pain. The inbounds pass from sophomore Ava Mikesell went to junior Juztice Slick in the right corner, who immediately turned and fed the ball to freshman Ady Kircher on the right wing.

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Kircher let an uncontested 3-pointer fly. The final buzzer sounded, the ball clanged off the rim and the dam holding in all the emotion broke.

Mastriano waited to have her moment until the team was done in the locker room, a short while after the Hagerstown gym lights had been dimmed. Even then, she had a joyous smile on her face, but that changed as she leaned in to hug her mom, an embrace that seemed to last the entirety of Dudley’s 10-minute conversation with reporters just a few steps away.

Mastriano seemingly tried to bring Northeastern back by herself in the final minute of the game. She missed a tough shot in the post with 20 seconds left that would have brought the Knights within two points of the Patriots. Ten seconds later, she missed a 3-pointer. She even threw up a half-court shot well before the buzzer to save the time it would have taken to dribble the ball up the court. She tried everything, and it started to take a toll.

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“It gets hard knowing time’s running out, and you’re missing shots,” Mastriano said. “You know it’s coming when it gets down to two seconds and you’re in that timeout, but I will say we did give it our all until the end.”

Just like Dudley said they would.

Dudley watched his players exit the locker room one by one, each with a different expression but all telling the same story. Whether it was red cheeks, teary eyes or covered faces, one look at all the emotion ranging from the seniors all the way down to the freshmen told you this season wasn’t supposed to end this way. This year was supposed to be special.

“If you look around and see the heartbreak right now, I think you can see that,” Dudley said. “I just know everybody in that locker room truly believed we’d be playing tomorrow night. For whatever reason, that just wasn’t in the plans for us, so we’re going to take it for what it is, move forward and learn from it.”

Union County went on to win its second consecutive sectional championship the following night, something the Knights pictured themselves doing this time next year.

But the plans didn’t stop there. The reason the Knights took this loss so hard, Dudley said, is because of what was expected. This was a team that made it to the sectional title game a year ago on the backs of a bunch of underclassmen. Those underclassmen got better leading up to this year, hence the expectations, and they’ll get even better before next year, hence the further expectations.

“We never overlooked a game,” Dudley said. “You hear the outside talk: ‘Well, next year, they return everybody.’ For us, that was never the talk. We were looking at the teams ranked in the top 10 all year and truly believed we stacked up right there with them. We knew, in my first year, we were going to take some bumps along the road, but we truly thought we could contend this year.”

And the same goes for 2023-24.

“As far as on the court, we return all of our major pieces. I think that’s why it hurts so much now,” Dudley added. “We’re not looking at a sectional championship, regional final or semi-state. We’re looking to compete for a state title next year. Talent-wise, I think that’s where that group is going to be next year.”

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Even though Friday felt like it wasn’t the outcome meant to happen for Northeastern, in a weird way, maybe it was.

In each of the previous four seasons, the Knights made it to the sectional championship game and lost every time. Most of the current roster only experienced the heartbreak of 2021-22, which, if you remember, was a young team without all the pressure of expectations. This season was the first these particular players had big expectations, and they didn’t even make it to their championship hump, let alone over it.

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Maybe this was their wake-up call.

“I think everyone expected something different from us this year, but I feel like this was meant to happen,” Mastriano said. “I feel like this was just for us to get right back up. This is our chance to come back. Next year, after this, we’ll be insane. I feel like this was meant to happen for the younger kids and our main group that’s going to be here next year to see it together, feel it together and want to win for each other.”

So, what does “insane” look like for a team that has already shown glimpses and stretches of greatness?

“All of us will be in the gym,” Mastriano said. “Our team chemistry is going to be on it.”

She continued, but her excitement seemed to overwhelm her, and she couldn’t put it all into words. Guess we’ll just have to wait and see what exactly “insane” looks like.

Next year might just be the year things end differently for the Knights, not just because they’ll be better, but because now they know what to expect when things are expected of them.

Zach Piatt is a reporter for The Palladium-Item. Contact him at zpiatt@gannett.com or on Twitter @zachpiatt13.

This article originally appeared on Richmond Palladium-Item: Northeastern ends season with more to prove, highest of expectations