Second quarter dooms CMB girls

BAXTER — Greene County’s girls’ basketball team turned a narrow game into a rout after a 21-5 advantage in the second quarter against Collins-Maxwell/Baxter on Friday night.

The Rams and Raiders were tied at 13-all after one quarter but Greene County led 34-18 at the break and outscored the hosts 23-6 in the fourth during a 70-38 victory that kept CMB winless on the season.

“We felt good as a team when it was 13-13. It gave us a chance, but then we got outscored 21-5 and that absolutely kills you,” said CMB coach Jamie Zabel. “We ran out of gas. The girls were busy with state dance competitions this week and we are tired. We looked tired tonight, especially in the second half.”

CMB also played Saturday evening and lost a close game to Class 1A No. 2 Colo-NESCO. The Raiders led 26-19 at halftime, but the ranked Royals rallied for a 43-40 win.

Greene County scored the first six points of the game Friday and led 10-3 on a Stacy Mears putback, but the Raiders got a pair of 3-pointers from Brianda Bane, a Mikayla Eslinger baseline jumper and a hoop with the harm from Mackenzie Schmitz to tie it at 13-all after one.

Reserve Marissa Promes sparked a big second quarter for the Rams. She put in back-to-back buckets to begin the period and then Kayla Mobley matched a Lexi Breon 3 that kept the difference at four.

Promes hit another jumper that fueled a 14-2 spurt.

And the Raiders never got closer than 14 in the second half. They trailed by 15 after three but two buckets by Breon and a Sidney Ziesman drive were all the Raiders could muster in the fourth.

“We got it to 14 with a few seconds left in the third,” said Zabel. “I thought if we could get it to 10 then we’d be OK, but then they made a few and-ones and it became 19 really quick.”

And Greene County scored 18 straight points after Breon’s second bucket.

Breon scored 15 points to lead the Raiders. Bane added 10. CMB was just 4-of-13 from the foul line, while Greene County hit 16-of-20.

Mears, who came into the game averaging nine per game, led all scorers with 21 points and Mobley chipped in 20. Promes also reached double-figures with 12 for the Rams, who improved to 2-1 overall and 2-1 in Heart of Iowa Athletic Conference play.

“We know that Mobley is the go-to girl and we know the Mears girl can shoot it, but we did not expect anyone to come off their bench and hurt us,” Zabel said. “We were backing off at first but then (Promes) hit a few shots and it forced us to go guard her out there and then it opened things up inside.”

Colo-NESCO 43, CMB 40

COLO — Bane had another double-double in her young varsity career, finishing with 15 points, 11 rebounds and four blocks, but it wasn’t enough as Colo-NESCO rallied past the Raiders at home.

Bane hit four 3-pointers and grabbed five offensive rebounds in the loss. Breon added eight points, eight rebounds, five assists and three steals for CMB, which fell to 0-5 on the season.

Carter Larson also had eight points and seven boards, and Mikayla Eslinger grabbed 11 rebounds and blocked five shots while Bridget Hurley scored five, pulled down six boards, had two blocks and collected two steals.

The Royals (5-0) led 12-10 after one quarter. but CMB took a seven-point lead into the locker room at halftime following a 16-9 advantage in the second frame. Colo-NESCO, though, outscored its visitors 24-14 in the second half to prevail.

CMB hit just 15-of-51 from the floor but blocked 13 shots.

The Raiders will travel to North Polk on Tuesday before hosting Prairie City-Monroe on Friday.

Greene County 13-21-13-23—70

CMB 13-5-14-6—38

Greene County (FG-3pt-FT-F-TP) — Rasmussen 1-1-0-4-3, Marquardt 1-0-0-1-2, Mears 5-2-5-3-21, M. Promes 6-0-0-4-12, H. Promes 0-0-0-2-0. Wessling 3-0-1-1-7, Mobley 5-1-7-3-20. Onken 1-0-3-2-5. Totals 21-4-16-20-70.

CMB (FG-3pt-FT-F-TP) — Ziesman 1-0-0-1-2, Baldwin 0-0-0-1-0, Schmitz 2-0-0-3-4, Hurley 1-1-0-4-3, Larson 1-0-0-3-2, Eslinger 1-0-0-1-2, Bane 3-2-2-3-10, Breon 6-1-2-15. Totals 15-4-4-17-38.