Four of the five area high school girls' basketball teams tipped off the 2017-18 season on Friday night. Two area teams — Prairie City-Monroe and Newton — squared off in the open round of the NHS Girls' Holiday Tournament in Newton. Lynnville-Sully won at home and Baxter took a loss on the road.
PCM 55, Newton 48
NEWTON — Newton High’s Cardinal girls and the Prairie City-Monroe Mustang girls walked onto the basketball court at NHS Friday night in much the same situation. The two Jasper County basketball teams had questions to answer with essentially one returning starter apiece.
The Mustangs and Cardinals gave fans a good game to open the season in their matchup in the 2017 NHS Girls Varsity Basketball Holiday Tournament. PCM pulled out a 55-48 win, outscoring Newton 9-1 in the final two minutes.
PCM led most of the game, jumping out to a 5-0 lead. Newton gained the lead twice and both times it was junior Camryn Wignall who put the Mustangs back on top. The first time came in the second period after the Cardinals had an 8-0 run led by three baskets inside by senior Ali Bestell.
Newton took a 16-14 lead at the 5:12 mark. Wignall fired in a 3-pointer to give the Mustangs the lead again then sophomore Regan Freland drilled a trey to push the lead to 20-16 with 3:57 left in the second period.
The Cardinals didn’t back down with back-to-back baskets by junior Rachel Rhoads and senior Addy Blom. Freland and Newton junior Peyton Maher traded baskets. The Mustangs reaped four points off two Newton turnovers.
By halftime PCM was sitting on a 31-24 advantage. Freland powered the Mustang offense with 19 points in the first half, but didn’t score until there were 2.9-seconds remaining in the game for a game-hight 21 points.
The Cardinals got two free throws from Blom to end the third quarter trailing 42-36. Newton erased the deficit on an 11-4 surge in the fourth quarter.
Bestell had four points in the run then seniors Marcelina Marvelli and Randi Walters had baskets for the Cardinals to make it 45-44 with 2:57 left to play. PCM junior Morgan Uhlenhopp went 1-of-4 at the free-throw line to make to a two-point Mustang lead.
Marvelli rang up a 3-pointer to give Newton a 47-46 lead. Just like in the second quarter, Newton had opportunities to extend its lead but misfired.
“Coach (Lindsay) just wanted us to get down there and play loose. I saw the opportunity to take the shot. It felt good. I just wanted my team to get the lead back,” Wignall said of her jump shot at the 1:41 mark to give the lead to PCM for good.
The Cardinals missed a shot on its next possession, blocked a PCM shot then turned it over. Newton had 20 turnovers in the game.
PCM was up 50-47 when Newton came away from four attempts at the free-throw line with just one point. Uhlenhopp sealed the Mustang win with a 3-point play with 24 seconds left.
“We competed for 32 minutes tonight. I’m proud of how the girls responded. We saw the first-game jitters early in the game,” Newton head coach Brandon Sharp said. “We had opportunities against a good athletic team. We’ll get better from this one.”
PCM head coach Jeff Lindsay said it was a good win for the Mustangs because of all the new players on the floor for them. He said a lot of the girls who played Friday night did not have much varsity playing time last year.
“I’ve just told our girls we have to be patient and find ourselves as a team out there,” Lindsay said. “We addressed rebounding at halftime and continued to stress it in the second half. We gave up too many second and third shots to Newton.”
The Mustangs had 38 rebounds with 29 coming off the defensive glass. Along with Freland’s 21 points, PCM got seven points each from Wignall and Lilli Baird.
Bestell finished with 14 points and nine rebounds for Newton. Blom added 10 points and grabbed seven rebounds. Walters had nine points. Marvelli made five steals and dished out six assists. Newton had 43 rebounds.
Newton (0-1) plays North Polk, which beat Carlisle 53-46 on Friday night, at 3 p.m. Saturday in the second round of the tournament. PCM gives way to Chariton, which will play Carlisle at 1 p.m.
The Mustangs (1-0) travel to Knoxville on Tuesday.
Lynnville-Sully 64, Iowa Valley 34
SULLY — Opening the 2017-18 season ranked No. 12 in Class 1A, Lynnville-Sully’s Hawk girls rolled at home Friday against Iowa Valley, 64-34, in South Iowa Cedar League play.
The Hawks staked out an 11-4 lead by the end of the first quarter. They were leading 32-19 at the break. Each team tallied 11 points in the third quarter. Lynnville-Sully put the finishing touches on the big win with a 21-4 fourth-quarter run.
"It was a good first game. The girls played very hard, and even if they were a little tired, they kept battling,” Lynnville-Sully head coach Jerry Hulsing said. “I thought we rebounded the ball well which leads up to be able to get out and run the floor for some easy baskets.”
Carson Fisk led the Hawks with 22 points, nine rebounds and four assists. Mariah Vos had a double-double with 16 point sand 14 rebounds.
The Hawk defense limited Iowa Valley to 25-percent shooting from the field. Iowa Valley hd 20 turnovers. Cherrise Ward had 15 points and 10 rebounds for Iowa Valley and Andrea Healey added 12 points.
Lynnville-Sully (1-0) plays a non-conference game on Tuesday at Baxter.
BCLUW 54, Baxter 44
CONRAD — Senior Sailor Hinegardner got her season off to a strong start, but the Baxter girls' basketball team lost its season opener to BCLUW on Friday night.
Hinegardner scored 19 points, grabbed five rebounds and had four steals, but the host Comets outscored Baxter by eight in the fourth quarter and won 54-44.
BCLUW led by six points after one quarter, but the Bolts (0-1) cut the halftime lead to only one with a 13-8 advantage in the second. The Comets (1-0) extended their lead to two after three quarters and then scored the first 12 points of the fourth to pull away.
Baxter was outscored 19-11 in the fourth. The Bolts made 17-of-56 from the floor and missed half of their free throws (10-of-20). The visitors out-rebounded BCLUW 29-20 but turned it over 34 times.
Senior Kaylin Van Ryswyk scored seven points to compliment Hinegardner and sophomore Sadie Meyer scored six points and grabbed five rebounds. Senior Jordynn Wesselink chipped in five points.
Freshman McKenzie Eslinger and sophomore Holly Jessen each grabbed five boards and Jessen collected four steals. Sophomore Caitlyn Bruntz also had three steals.