Cardinal girls come up short in OT

KNOXVILLE — Newton High’s Cardinal girls pushed undefeated Knoxville’s Panthers to the brink Saturday. Opening the second semester of the basketball season on the road, the Cardinals stayed right with their hosts.

Trailing by five after one quarter, the Cardinals closed the gap to two points, 25-23, when the teams reached halftime. They played point-for-point with the Panthers in a 13-all third quarter.

Newton outscored Knoxville 10-8 in the final eight minutes to forge a 46-46 tie at the end of regulation. Unfortunately, Knoxville continued to be very good at the free-throw line in the overtime period, hitting seven charities to seal a 55-49 win over Newton.

The Panthers (8-0) outscored the Cardinals (1-6) 9-3 in the extra period. Newton’s three points came on a basket and a free throw by junior point guard Sydney Jenkins. Jenkins led the Cardinals with 12 points, but fouled out in overtime.

“I’m very proud of how we played,” said Brandon Sharp, Newton girls’ head coach. “We just panicked in some pressure situations. We had a lot of uncharacteristic things happen late in the game. But, I’m very excited to see what this second half of the year has in store for us.”

The Cardinals turn around to play another non-conference contest at Ballard Monday. Tuesday Newton takes a 1-1 Little Hawkeye Conference record into a home game against Grinnell.

Knoxville pushed out to a 14-9 lead in the first quarter. The Cardinals battled back, pouring in 14 points in the second period while holding the Panthers to 11. Following an even third quarter, Newton trailed 38-36 going into the fourth quarter.

After tying the game up in the fourth period, Sharp said the final two minutes of the game “was just trading baskets. We had the ball with eight seconds left with a chance for a last shot, but we threw the ball out of bounds with five seconds left.”

Newton held its own in the final seconds of regulation for a 46-all tie.

A big factor in the game was free throw shooting. The Panthers cashed in on 25-of-34 attempts at the free-throw line, including sinking seven in overtime. The Cardinals shot 15 free throws, hitting five.

Alex Hutchinson poured in 11 points for the Cardinals. Hutchinson and Hannah Rhoads each had a 3-pointer. Rhoads and Ryanne Rausch each had six points. Michaela Jacobsen scored eight points.

Knoxville got 19 points from Ashley Hawkshead. Meredith Cunningham went 10-of-11 at the charity stripe on her way to 14 points. Emily Wallace added 10 points.

Newton won the junior varsity game 32-23, The Cardinals led 16-4 at halftime. Megan Pressgrove led a balanced scoring attack for Newton with nine points. Victoria Jordan had six points.

The Newton freshmen won 49-25. They led 23-18 at halftime and only gave up six points to Knoxville in the second half. Addy Blom paced the Cardinal freshmen with 13 points followed by Marcelina Marvelli with 12 and Taylor Ryan with 10.

Newton  9-14-13-10-3—49

Knoxville  14-11-13-8-9—55

Newton (FG/3-pt): Rausch 3-0-4-6, Jenkins 4/1-1-5-12, Hutchinson 4-3-4-11, Reynolds 1-0-3-2, Horn 2-0-1-4, M. Jacobsen 4-0-3-8, Rhoads 1/1-1-4-6. TOTALS: 19/2-5-24-49.

Knoxville (FG/3-pt): Cunningham 2-10-0-14, Hawkshead 5/1-6-2-19, Carter 1-4-1-6, Chambers 0-4-3-4, Wallace 3/1-1-4-10, Hall 0-0-2-0, Kendall 1-0-4-2. TOTALS: 14/2-25-16-55.

Contact Jocelyn Sheets at
641-792-3121 ext. 6535 or jsheets@newtondailynews.com