After the game was completed, Northwestern coach Gerald Embry received the good news he was wanting to hear. Not only did the Warriors defeat Greenon 83-49 on Friday night in front of a good crowd, but the news of Indian Lake losing to Graham has set the Warriors up in position to win their first league title in 12 years. Northwestern played Urbana last night and a win would clinch the title for the Warriors. They need to win one of their last three league games to secure a title.

Meanwhile, Greenon battled well in the opening period, only trailing by four after the opening period. But a rough second quarter put the Knights in a rough spot down 18 at the half, and the Warriors put the game away with a big third quarter.

“We needed that game especially after the Bellefontaine game,” Embry said, with his team losing to Bellefontaine earlier last week by 16 points. “Our kids responded and bounced back and I am proud of that.”

The Warriors came out slow in the opening period, while the Knights responded well in the opening five minutes of the game, tied at 6-6 before the Warriors went on a 8-4 run to end the quarter and took a 14-10 lead into the second.

“We came out flat in the first quarter, but Ryan Cleland spoke up and got everyone on the same page and we took off from there,” Embry said.

Free throws from Greenon’s Trevor Anderson and a score from Logan Coppock kept the Knights close early in the second, but Northwestern reeled off six straight points to push their lead out to 26-12 with 3:02 left in the half.

Another run by Northwestern led by Kurt Waters took the Warriors lead out to 35-15 toward the end of the first half. Greenon ended the half on a 5-3 run closed out by a three from Jake Richards made it 38-20 at the half.

Northwestern put the game away in the third, reeling off 11 consecutive points to double the Knights up 51-25. They never looked back.

With the win, the Warriors were in position to capture the CBC Mad River Division title last night against Urbana.

“Indian Lake is three games behind us and we need one more win to clinch,” Embry said, heading into last night’s game. “If we can beat Urbana (last night) we can clinch.”

“We have been talking about a league title since last year, our younger kids got better last year and they put in a lot of time in the gym in the summer. We look at our basketball banner every night and we have one league title 12 years ago. I challenged these kids.”

Evan Nofkee led the Warriors with 20 and Waters added 17. Greenon was led by Richards with 19 points on 7-8 shooting, while Coppock added eight points and 12 rebounds.

Northwestern is back in action Friday night at Shawnee, while Greenon hosts Graham also Friday.