Cards see Mount off with Senior Night victory
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| Newton senior Liz Mount fights back tears as she goes to the bench in the fourth quarter of the Cardinals’ 53-33 Senior Night win over Grinnell Friday. Mount, the team’s only senior, received a standing ovation from the home crowd, her teammates and her coaches. (Shane Lucas/Daily News) |
Whether it was motivation from a bad loss, Senior Night or just a team finally coming into its own, the Newton girls basketball team couldn’t have picked a better time to deliver its most dominant performance of the season than Friday night.
Besides rolling into the Class 4A playoffs with momentum, the Cardinals (6-14, 5-7 Little Hawkeye Conference) gave Liz Mount the best possible gift she could receive on Senior Night and dished out some revenge on Grinnell for a tough loss earlier in the season with a 53-33 no-doubter victory.
“Our girls are extremely happy right now,” Newton coach Brandon Sharp said. “It was fun to just sit back and watch. We executed on every part of the game. There were a couple of stretches where it wasn’t exactly pretty, but we didn’t shoot ourselves in the foot.”
The game was a no-brainer from the opening tip on as Newton sprinted out to an 8-0 lead thanks to four points each from Mount and junior Katelyn Camp. Toss in four more points from junior Michelle Marquis in the quarter, and some patented Newton defense, and the Cards had a 12-4 lead after one quarter of play.
“It all just clicked and that was good,” Mount said. “It’s just so special to beat Grinnell, which is our big rivalry, and to celebrate with Coach Sharp and everyone, it just feels really good.”
With junior Kaylie Rhoads on the bench due to foul trouble in the second and the offense needing a sudden shot in the arm, sophomore Michaela Bleeker delivered that shot...or shots. Bleeker was a machine in the post throughout the quarter, scoring nine points overall and going on a personal 6-0 run, which helped her to first career double-double with 12 points and 10 boards on the night.
“I’ll be honest, we called one play for her to get the ball down low. And other than that, it was the girls’ doing,” Sharp said. “I think our IQ jumped a couple points tonight, and we just sat back and watched. Bleeker carried us that second quarter and just had an unbelievable game.”
Newton built up its 16-point halftime lead to 20 points after the third quarter as the rest of the roster began to chip in points. Some of those came in transition, some came through sets, but the important fact is that five different Cardinals registered points in the quarter, leading to nine overall scorers on the night.
“Our balanced scoring was unbelievable tonight,” Sharp said. “We challenged Katelyn Camp a couple games ago to look for her shots when she can. We need her to be aggressive like she was tonight.”
The Cards kept their foot on the gas throughout the fourth before putting the game on cruise control in the final minutes. A teary Mount left the game with just a few minutes on the clock to a standing ovation and to a satisfied feeling of trouncing a rival on her Senior Night.
“Liz has been an incredible leader, and tonight was all for her,” Sharp said. “More importantly than the basketball part, she’s an unbelievable person. There were some times I wanted to ask her to fail some classes so she could come back next year, but I’m happy for her that she could get sent out this way.”
Mount’s leadership got the Cards through a rough patch at the beginning of the season that featured two separate five-game losing streaks. That team is almost non-existent now that Newton has won five of its final 10 games and finished fifth in the Little Hawkeye Conference.
Not bad for a team picked to finish dead last.
“It started out slow, but we really got better,” Mount said. “It shows just how you have your ups and downs in life, but you can never give up. You’re always stronger than you think you are, and you can always improve.”
While it was her last game in Newton, Mount and the Cards will have at least one more game this season when they travel to Johnston for the first round of the Class 4A regionals on Wednesday. The Dragons were sporting an identical 6-14 record as of last Friday.
Newton 53, Grinnell 33
Score by quarter
G — 4 6 10 13 — 33
N — 12 14 14 13 — 53
Individual scorers
G — Maggie Wiltfang 8, Anneliese Wiltfang 6, Johnson 4, Mulholland 4, Finch 3, Axmear 2, Campbell 2, Sharp 2
N — Bleeker 12, Camp 8, Rhoads 8, Latcham 6, Marquis 6, Mount 4, Samson 4, Karsten 3, Stock 2
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