March 29, 2024

Cardinal girls claim victory at home

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Playing with a lead is not something Newton High’s Cardinal girls are used to this season and it showed on Thursday at home against Marshalltown. The Cardinals led most of the game, but struggled against the Bobcats at times on their way to a 42-31 victory.

“We’ll get better. We’re a team with not a lot of experience playing with a lead. We have good teaching material from tonight’s game to use to improve on that,” Newton head coach Brandon Sharp said.

“I liked out effort all night. In the second half, our competitive fire died down, and we’re not good enough to stop playing with energy. It was good to get the win here at home.”

Senior Marcelina Marvelli was challenged by her coach. Sharp said Marvelli stopped being aggressive on offense and “we called her out all week in practice. She answered the challenge tonight.”

Marvelli drilled two 3-pointers for the first six points of the game for Newton. She finished with a team-high 11 points. The game was tied at 6-6 when senior Addy Blom had a reverse layup go to give Newton the lead for good.

Junior Peyton Maher connected for two more for Newton. Anna Forsyth, another senior, sank two free throws with 1:16 left in the first quarter followed by a bucket by senior post player Ali Bestell to put Newton up 14-6. It was 14-7 going into the second period.

At the 6:34 mark of the second quarter, senior Randi Walters scored her first points of the game for a 16-10 Cardinal lead. Marshalltown’s Kassy Vest answered with a basket at the other end of the court.

Bestell downed one of two free throws then Forsyth scored in transition. Walters made a drive to the basket then passed the ball to Blom for a basket. The Cardinals increased their lead to 21-12 at he midway mark.

Newton was up by 10 points, 27-17, at halftime.

The Cardinals opened the second half on a 7-2 run. Bestell had a field goal to start the run. The Bobcats got two free throws from Erica Johnson then Marvelli had a field goal followed up by a trey.

With 4:17 on the third-quarter clock, the Cardinals were in front of the Bobcats, 34-19. Newton only scored eight more points over the next 12 minutes of the game. Marshalltown tallied 12 points.

“Not taking care of then all and not communicating on defense put us in a big hole. We played them to a one-point game in the second half,” Sharp said. “We’re a much better team than that. I take some of the blame because I allowed us to take shots we shouldn’t have. Our shot selection was not good in the second half. That’s on me.”

Sharp said the Bobcats used a press to speed the Cardinals up in the second half. He said his team did not respond well even when it practices against a press each day. Sharp said the Cardinals had two or three turnovers in the first half and ended up with 17 for the game.

“Most of those turnovers were not forced turnovers. We have to always value the ball,” Sharp said.

Newton got eight points from Bestell and six points each from Forsyth, Walters and Maher. Walters had six rebounds four assists and two steals. Maher pulled down five rebounds.

“We shook up the starting lineup up tonight to see where three shooters on the floor took us. We had six kids who played pretty consistent tonight,” Sharp said. “Marcelina played really well, looking for her shots, looking to get to the free-throw line and driving to the basket.”

Marshalltown (1-3) was led by Johnson’s 12 points. The Bobcats went 7-of-13 from the free-throw line.

In a junior varsity game, Newton rolled up a 44-23 win over Marshalltown. Meg Callaghan had a double-double with 16 points and 12 rebounds.

Newton (2-3) takes a 0-1 mark into Friday’s home Little Hawkeye Conference game against Class 4A No. 15 Dallas Center-Grimes. The varsity tips off at 6:15 p.m.

Marshalltown 7-10-6-8—31

Newton 14-13-9-6—42

Newton (FG/3-pt): Forsyth 2-2-0-6, Walters 3-0-2-6, Marvelli 1/3-0-1-11, Rhoads 0-0-1-0, Ryan 0-0-1-0, Maher 1/1-1-3-6, Bestell 3-2-2-8, Blom 2-1-2-5. TOTALS: 12/4-6-12-42.

Marshalltown (FG/3-pt): Chadderton 2/1-0-0-7, Johnson 2/1-5-4-12, Feldman 2-0-3-4, Himes 0-0-1-0, Vest 2-1-5-5, Metzger 1-1-0-3. TOTALS: 9/2-7-13-31.

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