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Playing with a lead has been a learning experience for Newton High’s Cardinal girls this season. They had the lead in a couple of contests, couldn’t hold it down the stretch and lost.
It was not going to happen again on Wednesday in front a home crowd in Class 4A Region 3 play.
Newton saw visiting Waterloo East’s Trojans whittle away at several Cardinal leads — a nine-point second quarter one to trail by three at halftime and an 18-point second-half margin to get within four with less than four minutes left in the game.
Newton had the answers and held steady to its lead to win 61-56. The Cardinals (7-15) advance to the Region 3 semifinals on Saturday. They play ninth-ranked Dallas Center-Grimes (12-9) at 7 p.m. Saturday in Grimes.
“We’ve prepared for this all year. We might not have the best record, but we’ve played some of the top teams in the state and competed well all year,” Senior Courtney Jacobsen said. “Those valleys going through those tough games carried us through tonight.”
Three was a good number for Newton Wednesday. The Cardinals connected on five of its 10 3-pointers in the third quarter, driving its advantage over the Trojans to 47-29.
Coming out of the halftime break with a 26-23 lead, Newton found Jacobsen open twice for 3-pointers. Junior Marcelina Marvelli nailed a trey at the 6:06 mark of the third quarter to finish a 9-0 run for Newton and put it up 35-23.
Jacobsen finished with a season-high 17 points and five 3-pointers in the game. When the Trojans made their big fourth-quarter run at Newton, Jacobsen drained a 3-pointer at the 4:37 mark for a 50-40 lead. She connected from long range again with 1:32 to play in the game, pushing the Cardinal lead back to 55-48.
“My teammates found me when I was open and I was able to knock the shots down,” Jacobsen said. “We executed pretty well tonight. When they came back on us, we reverted to what we had done in the past a bit. We decided to come together, work through it and get over the hump.”
Newton played a lot of the playoff game without its leading scorer, senior Ryanne Rausch, on the court. Rausch was in foul trouble early, going to the Cardinal bench at the 6:22 mark of the second quarter in a 15-all game. She started the third period, but picked up her fourth foul in the opening minute and sat back down.
“In our minds, we made it through the first round of the playoffs without our best scorer playing a lot because of foul trouble. I’m proud of how our players responded all night and battled,” Newton head coach Brandon Sharp said. “We found ways to weather the storm, taking several steps forward.”
A couple of those steps came in the final quarter with Waterloo East putting the pressure on Newton and chipping away at the Cardinal lead. Sharp said the Cardinals had to take a breath, relax and finish.
Rausch was back on the court at the end, re-entering with five minutes remaining in the contest. Waterloo East’s Amanee Clark and Kerris Roberts scored six unanswered points to cut the Newton lead to 50-46 with 3:56 left, Rausch stepped to the free-throw line and sank two foul shots.
After Jacobsen delivered her fifth 3-pointer of the night, it was senior Taylor Shipley hitting both ends of a one-and-one to give Newton a 57-48 lead with 1:13 remaining. Rausch sealed the win by sinking 4-of-6 free throws in the final 36 seconds.
The teams opened with a back-and-forth first quarter. Rausch hit a 3-pointer with 3:47 left to tie it a 8-all then the Trojans pushed out to a 13-8 lead.
Senior post player Ellie Horn, who had a double-double with 12 points and 13 rebounds, got loose inside for a bucket for Newton. Rausch, who was 7-of-10 at the free-throw line, sank one. She missed her second attempt but junior Randi Walters was right there for a putback.
Newton and Waterloo East were tied 13-13 going into the second quarter. The Trojans’ Selna Collier and Newton’s Ali Bestell traded baskets in the opening minute, and Rausch picked up her third foul.
Shipley drilled a 3-pointer to ignite a 9-0 run by the Cardinals. Bestell, Jacobsen and Horn each had baskets to gain a 24-15 lead. Clark and Roberts led a Trojan rally to close the gap to 26-23 at halftime.
“They have two really good players in Clark and Roberts. Roberts is one of the best players we’ve played this year in getting into the paint. Clark is a streaky shooter from outside and we knew she could go off,” Sharp said.
Roberts drove the lane for baskets and drawing fouls against Newton in the second half. She finished with 27 points, going 14-of-18 at the line. Clark hit three 3-pointers on her way to 19 points for Waterloo East.
The Trojans stayed close to Newton by cashing in 18-of-25 free throw attempts. The Cardinals downed 11-of-21 foul shots. The rebounding was even, 42-42.
Rausch scored 10 points for Newton. Walters collected 10 rebounds and dished out five assists. Shipley had six assists and Jacobsen had four rebounds. Horn blocked four shots and handed out three assists.
In the other Class 4A Region 3 quarterfinal game Wednesday, Norwalk (4-17) edged Winterset, 47-41. Norwalk plays at No. 14 Boone (17-5) at 7 p.m. Saturday.
Newton faces a familiar opponent Saturday in Dallas Center-Grimes, a fellow Little Hawkeye Conference team. The Cardinals lost 56-24 and 58-46 to the Fillies in LHC action.
“We have not had a lot of success at their place, but we’re playing in a pretty good position right now,” Sharp said. “We’re looking forward to going there, competing and seeing what happens.”
Waterloo East 13-10-11-22—56
Newton 13-13-21-14—61
Newton (FG/3-pt): Rausch 0/1-7-4-10, Walters 1/1-0-2-5, Marvelli 0/2-0-4-6, Shipley 0/-2-2-5, Jacobsen 1/5-0-2-17, Horn 5-2-3-12, Bestell 3-0-2-6, Blom 0-0-1-0. TOTALS: 10/10-11-20-61.
Waterloo East (FG/3-pt): Nash 1-0-3-2, Sisk 2-0-4-4, Clark 3/3-4-4-19, Roberts 5/1-14-3-27, Ryan 0-0-1-0, Collier 1-0-0-2, Shannon 1-0-3-2, Cherry 0-0-1-0. TOTALS: 13/4-18-19-56.
Contact Jocelyn Sheets at
641-792-3121 ext. 6535 or jsheets@newtondailynews.com