Fillies defeat Cardinals

GRIMES — Falling behind 34-19 with a minute left in the third quarter, Newton High’s Cardinals picked themselves up off the Dallas Center-Grimes basketball floor and got back in the game. The Cardinals scored 12 unanswered points to close the gap to three points, 34-31, against the Fillies.

The Class 4A 15th-ranked Fillies bolted from that point, outscoring the Cardinals 16-2 the final 6:30 minutes Friday. DCG nailed down a 50-33 decision over Newton in Little Hawkeye Conference play.

They did it from the free-throw line, hitting 11-of-13 foul shots in the fourth quarter. For the game, the Fillies were 20-of-28 from the line while the Cardinals were 7-of-11.

“We played really hard and had a great start to the game,” Newton head coach Brandon Sharp said. “Defensively, we were pretty good. We held them to 28 percent shooting from the field. We shot 33 percent.”

Sharp pointed to turnovers. Newton didn’t take care of the ball well enough against the Fillies. The Cardinals average 18 turnover a game.

“We have to stay below the magic number of 17 for turnovers. Every turnover you have over 17 drops your percentage of winning by 1 percent,” Sharp said.

Newton had a 6-2 lead with three minutes left in the first quarter and was up 8-7 going into the second quarter. The Fillies opened with a 10-0 run to go up 17-8 by the 3:34 mark of the second period.

Newton’s Alex Hutchinson had a three-point play followed by a basket by Ryanne Rausch to make it a four-point game. Two free throws with a minute left and a 3-pointer to beat the halftime buzzer lifted DCG to a 22-13 halftime lead.

“We stressed all week and (Friday night) about playing with confidence for 32 minutes,” Sharp said. “I think we played with good confidence for 24 minutes — not in the second quarter. We put them at the line at the end quite a bit just trying to get the ball back.”

The Fillies extended their lead to the 34-19 margin in the third period.

Hutchinson led the Cardinals with 11 points. The rally in the fourth quarter was started on back-to-back 3-pointers from Courtney Jacobsen, who finished with six points.

Rachel Lowary tossed in 15 points and Jenna Borchers had 13 for DCG (12-5, 6-3 LHC).

Newton is 8-8 overall and 3-5 in LHC play.

The Cardinals learn their Class 4A regional pairing Monday afternoon.

The Cardinals play at home Monday against Chariton in non-conference action and host 4A 13th-ranked Grinnell Tuesday in conference action. Both games are at 6:15 p.m.

In junior varsity play Friday, DCG defeated Newton, 27-21. Taylor Ryan scored six points and Randi Walters had five for Newton.

Newton’s freshman girls lost 34-31 to Dallas Center-Grimes. Rachel Rhoads had nine points for Newton. Peyton Maher had eight points and nine rebounds. Emily Valtman scored seven points and Abbie Barr had three steals.

Newton 8-5-10-10—33

DCG 7-15-12-16—50

Newton (FG/3-pt): Rausch 2-0-2-4, Jenkins 1-3-3-5, Moon 0-0-1-0, Hutchinson 4-3-5-11, Reynolds 1-0-2-2, Shipley 1-0-1-2, Jacobsen 0/2-0-1-6, Horn 0-0-1-0, Pressgrove 0-0-1-0. Rhoads 2-1-1-5. TOTALS: 11/2-7-18-33.

Dallas Center-Grimes (FG/3-pt(: Kramer 1/1-2-1-7, Jorgensen 0-1-0-1, Borchers 2/1-6-2-13, Junge 1-0-0-2, Vroegh 0-0-4-0, Masching 2-2-3-6, Wuebker 1-0-0-2, Lowary 1/2-7-1-15, Nolte 1-2-1-4, Carpenter 0-0-1-0. TOTALS: 9/4-20-13-50.

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