March 29, 2024

Boone stands tall to turnback Newton

Newton High’s Cardinal girls made a game of it, even though the final score doesn’t indicate that fact. The Cardinals dropped a 65-50 decision at home against Boone Tuesday.

The game was much closer.

Two second-half mini-runs by the much taller Boone team kept the Cardinals at arms length. Throughout the first half, Newton was able to keep Boone’s 6-foot-2 inch senior post player Mariah McPartland under wraps.

McPartland only had two first-half points and was in a bit of foul trouble. She had two fouls by the 7:11 mark of the second quarter.

McPartland established herself inside in the second half. She scored eight of her team’s first 12 points in the third quarter.

The Toreadors had held off the Cardinals late in the second period. Boone took a 27-25 lead into the break when a Newton 3-point field goal attempt came up short.

McPartland scored on a putback to open the third quarter. Sydney Jenkins kept pace for the Cardinals with a basket.

Boone used an 8-0 run to push its lead to 10 points by the midway point of the third quarter. At the 2:45 mark, Hannah Rhoads connected for Newton.

Newton made a defensive stop and Jenkins took the ball on the run. She found Rhoads with a pass and Rhoads scored to make it 41-35.

Carrie Overland drained one of her four 3-pointers for Boone to counter the Newton rally. Boone held a 46-37 advantage going into the final quarter.

Jenkins, who netted four threes on the night, drained one to open the fourth period. McPartland stepped out and answered with a trey.

Trailing 51-40, the Cardinals got a five-point spurt from Jenkins. Jenkins added another basket to make it 53-47 with 3:27 remaining to play.

Boone reeled off seven unanswered points to stem the Cardinal tide.

“We take a lot of pride on our defense and we didn’t match up very well with this team. They have two 6-foot-2 inch girls and a 6-foot girl to play inside,” said Brandon Sharp, Newton head coach. “I give our post players credit. They battled like crazy and I’m proud of the effort our girls gave inside.”

Sharp said get stops on defense are a main focus for the Cardinals. He said Newton did a good job of getting stops in the first half but struggled with just four stops in the second half.

When Overland hit a 3-pointer to put Boone up 8-4 with 3:35 left in the first quarter, Rhoads answered with a three for Newton. Serena Sandvig scored inside for Boone.

Fans saw three consecutive 3-pointers go down. Jenkins hit one to tie the game at 10-all followed by one from Boone’s Dianna Slight. Michaela Jacobsen had the third trey to knot the score at 13-13. With two seconds on the clock, Jacobsen hit a field goal, just inside the three-point arc. Newton led 15-13.

Alex Hutchinson had a conventional three-point play with 6:33 on the clock in the second quarter to break a 15-15 tie. She scored again to push Newton’s lead to 20-15.

Jenkins nailed a 3-pointer at the 2:57 mark to put the Cardinals up 25-22. It was the last time Newton held the lead. A basket by Serena Sandvig and free throws from Emma Rouse and Claire Sandvig handed the lead back to Boone by halftime.

“We got stuck in some tough spots tonight when we couldn’t get subs in,” Sharp said. “We’ll make some adjustments. We plan to focus on controlling the things we can control and move forward.”

Jenkins led the Cardinals with 18 points. Hutchinson finished with 10 points and Jacobsen had nine. Newton went 6-of-10 from the free-throw line.

McPartland had a game-high 20 points followed by Overland with 14 points for Boone. Serena Sandvig had 12 points.

Newton is 2-11 overall. The Cardinals take a 2-4 Little Hawkeye Conference mark into Friday’s game at Pella Christian (7-6, 2-4) to start the second round of conference play.

Boone won the junior varsity game, 44-38. Boone led 31-30 after three quarters and it was 33-33 early in the fourth quarter. Jaci Twaddle led Newton with nine points followed by Courtney Jacobsen with six and Taylor Ryan with five.

Scoring three points each were Marcelina Marvelli, Taylor Shipley, Elli Horn and Ali Bestell. Taylor Moon, Megan Pressgrove and Jessie Smith each had two points.

Newton’s freshmen defeated Boone 62-34 after leading 47-14 at halftime. Addy Blom scored 13 points followed by Bestell with 12, Anna Forsyth with 11, Ryan with 10, Marvelli with 10, Randi Walters with six and Tessa Keeton with two.

Boone  13-14-19-19—65

Newton  15-10-12-13—50

Newton (FG/3-pt): Rausch 1-2-0-4, Jenkins 2/4-2-1-8, Leonard 0-0-1-0, Moon 0-0-2-0, Hutchinson 4-2-1-10, Reynolds 1-0-4-2, Horn 0-0-1-0, Jacobsen 3/1-0-2-9, Pressgrove 0-0-2-0, Rhoads 2/1-0-2-7.

Boone (FG/3-pt): Overland 1/4-0-2-14, Slight 3/1-0-0-9, Rouse 0-1-2-1, S. Sandvig 6-0-3-12, C. Sandvig 0-4-1-4, Shadie 2-1-3-5, McPartland 6/1-5-3-20. TOTALS: 18/6-11-14-65.

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