Quick start, consistency lead Eagles over Cards
Comments (...)All good things must come to an end.
After pulling out two big upsets in its past two games, the Newton girls basketball felt the old sting of defeat once again on Tuesday night with a robust 69-30 loss to Class 2A No. 10 Pella Christian
“They shot the ball extremely well, but that’s what they do. They either get a layup or they shoot a three,” Newton coach Brandon Sharp said. “They’re good shooters and a good team, but we didn’t come out to play tonight.”
Much like in the teams’ first meeting, the Eagles lit up the Cardinals (4-13, 3-7 Little Hawkeye Conference) from beyond the arc early and often. The Eagles opened the game with three-straight 3-pointers from the left wing and continued to pour on the points after that to take a 26-5 lead after one quarter.
Things only got worse in the second as excessive fouls on the Cardinals put the Eagles in the bonus late in the first quarter. Pella Christian added a few more threes and Newton got some redemption buckets from juniors Kaylie Rhoads and Kristin Samson, as well as sophomore Lizzie Stock off the bench, but the Eagles still led 45-16 at the halftime. Pella Christian went 7-for-9 from downtown in the first half.
“It was going to be an extremely long night,” Sharp said. “I don’t want to put it on the refs at all, because their first nine points were all threes. We control what we control, including if we leave a person wide open or not.”
Facing a nearly impossible deficit to climb back from, Newton went through multiple personnel shifts in the second half. Much of the bench and the team’s short-term specialists, the “Bomb Squad,” saw some significant court time in the third and fourth quarters. Newton managed a 5-0 run to interrupt an early Eagle 9-0 run in the third and trailed 61-21 going into the fourth.
“The way we left halftime was the girls had to decide amongst themselves who was going to show up, because obviously there wasn’t even a resemblance of the team that our fans and our community had seen for the past three games,” Sharp said. “So we mixed things up and I wanted to get in some individuals that had good days at practice to see what they could do against this type of talent.”
Those personnel changes showed their worth in the fourth as the Cards held Pella Christian to a game-low eight points, with many of the Eagles’ starters still in the game. Newton ended the night on a 7-0 run with a three from junior Michelle Marquis and two points each by junior Anna Latcham and freshman Michaela Jacobson.
The Cards sported special pink jerseys in support of Coaches vs. Cancer night. Being a first-time participant from the coaching side, Sharp was impressed with what he saw and hoped for a strong fundraising effort from the Newton faithful.
“It’s for a great cause and I absolutely love it,” Sharp said. “This is the first time I’ve seen everything get together. I saw it in the college ranks, but we didn’t have all the fundraising.”
Newton will return to the road on Friday for a rematch with Knoxville. The Cards earned their first conference win with a 46-34 defeat of the Panthers on Jan. 10.
Pella Christian 69, Newton 30
Score by quarter
P — 26 19 16 8 — 69
N — 5 11 5 9 — 30
Individual scorers
P —Schelhaas 18, Nolte 13, Veenstra 12, Engbers 8, Vink 6, Stursma 5, Spurgeon 4, Van Gilst 3
N — Rhoads 8, Marquis 5, Stock 4, Samson 3, Jacobson 2, Karsten 2, Latcham 2, Mount 2, Richtsmeier 2
Comments
Total Comments 0 View/Add Comments |
There have been no comments made about this story. |
