Cardinal girls roll to victory over Chariton

Sydney Jenkins poured in 22 points in the first half of Monday’s non-conference game to guide Newton High’s girls to a 39-26 halftime lead. That earned her special attention from visiting Chariton’s Chargers in the second half.

Jenkins finished with 28 points, so the box-and-one defense slowed her down. Her Cardinal teammates took up the slack to claim a 76-48 victory.

“When they came out in the second half with the box-and-one on Syd, it took us a little while to recognize what was happening,” Newton head coach Brandon Sharp said.

“We called the timeout and talked the players through that change. It was nice to see us grow in that area of our basketball IQ.”

The Chargers scored the first four points of the second half to cut the margin to nine points.

Junior Ryanne Rausch and senior Hannah Rhoads touched off an 11-2 run by the Cardinals. It was the second big run of the night for Newton.

“We had a couple of stretches where we extended the lead on them,” Sharp said. “The second one put us in the driver’s seat.”

The first run came in the second period after Chariton rallied from a 17-10 first-quarter deficit. Chariton’s Saydee Terrell hit a 3-pointer and a field goal to tie the game at 22-all with 4:18 left in the second quarter.

Jenkins drained one of her four 3-pointers on the ensuing possession for Newton. The Cardinals were on their way in a 17-4 surge to close out the first half.

In the run, Jenkins scored six more points, including a buzzer-beater at the break. Rhoads scored three points and junior Courtney Jacobsen nailed a trey and senior Jessica Reynolds sank two free throws.

“We were playing pretty well as a team. We were sharing the ball well,” Rhoads said of the game. “We know our defense could have been better. We have to communicate better, and we did communicate more in the second half.”

During the third-quarter run, Rausch had seven points, including a 3-pointer. Rhoads and senior Taylor Moon each added a field goal.

At the midway point of the third period, the Cardinals were in control of a 50-32 lead. Jenkins got back into the scoring with back-to-back treys as the lead moved to 20 points, 58-38.

Leading 58-42 with eight minutes left to play, the Cardinals held the Chargers to six points the rest of the game. Newton added 18 in the final period.

Rhoads said the team has been stressing maintaining their enthusiasm throughout the game. She said the Cardinals were up the entire game, playing together and having fun.”

Rhoads and Jacobsen, who hit three 3-pointers, each scored 11 points. Unofficially, Rhoads had nine rebounds and Reynolds had 11 rebounds.

“I wasn’t real happy with the first 12 minutes of the game. I was confident we were going to pull one out tonight, but right now at the end of the season, we don’t want to just pull one out,” Sharp said. “We want to execute properly. We want every win we have to sit well with us because it’s good basketball.”

Newton shot 44 percent from the field, Sharp said. He said the Cardinals’ goal is to be in that 40-percent range every game and keep opponents to 33 percent.

The Cardinals were 16-of-24 from the free-throw line and the Chargers hit 11-of-23 foul shots.

Terrell was the only Charger to score in double figures with 12 points. Carley Arnold added eight for Chariton (8-10).

Newton improved to 8-9 overall. The Cardinals’ Little Hawk Conference game against 4A 13th-ranked Grinnell has been moved from Tuesday to Thursday at Newton.

It was sweep for the Newton girls against Chariton. Newton won the junior varsity game, 42-36, led by Randi Walters and Taylor Ryan with nine points each and Marcelina Marvelli with eight points.

Newton’s freshmen won 43-19. Peyton Maher scored 11 points and Rachel Rhoads had 10 points for the Cardinals.

Newton  17-22-19-18—76

Chariton  10-16-16-6—48

Newton (FG/3-pt): Rausch 1/1-2-3-7, Jenkins 5/4-6-0-28, Moon 1-1-4-3, Hutchinson 2-0-3-4, Reynolds 2-2-3-6, Shipley 0-0-1-0, Jacobsen 1/3-0-2-11, Horn 2-2-1-6, Pressgrove 0-0-3-0, Rhoads 4-3-1-11. TOTALS: 18/8-16-21-76.

Chariton (FG/3-pt): Curran 2/1-0-5-7, Schaeffer 1-2-2-4, Fuhs 2-0-0-4, Blong 0-1-1-1, Swarthout 0-2-2-2, Arnold 3-0-3-8, Hardie 0-0-2-0, Richards 1-2-4-4, Terrell 3/2-0-3-12, Bacus 1-4-1-6, Davis 0-0-1-0. TOTALS: 15/3-11-24-48.

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