Ranked Fillies rally past Cardinal girls

In many ways Newton High’s Cardinal girls out-played the visiting Class 4A 15th-ranked Dallas Center-Grimes Fillies on Friday night. The Cardinals shot the ball better. They came out firing on all cylinders, leading the Fillies.

The Cardinal girls had the Fillies right where they wanted the them with 2:43 left in the third quarter. Newton held a 30-26 lead at home in the Little Hawkeye Conference contest.

Then the Fillies’ senior guard Jenna Borchers broke loose. Borchers had been held in check by the Cardinals with only four first half points. She finished with 23 points, leading the Fillies to a 52-37 win.

Newton trailed 34-32 with 19 seconds left in the third quarter. DCG outscored Newton 18-5 in the last 8:01 of the game. Borchers hit all four of her 3-point field goals in a 14-point flurry in the fourth quarter — a quarter in which the Fillies scored 15 points.

“We played a very, very nice first half. Our kids played hard all the way after a win the night before in a game we didn’t finish well,” Newton head coach Brandon Sharp said. “The game came down to us not keeping track of the ball and us losing their best player, who scored 19 of her 23 points in the second half.”

The Cardinals shot 49 percent from the field. The Fillies went 18-of-51 for 35 percent, but they did hit seven 3-pointers. DCG also sank 9-of-15 free throw attempts while Newton went 1-of-4 at the line.

Sharp said his team had 25 turnovers in the game with 15 coming in the second half. Newton was 16-of-36 shooting from the field, but the turnovers limited his team’s ability to score, he said.

Newton opened the game with back-to-back 3-pointers by Peyton Maher and Randi Walters. Ali Bestell scored a bucket on the inside to put the Cardinals up 8-0. A basket by Jordan Cunningham at the 4:05 mark of the first quarter to put DCG on the scoreboard.

The Cardinals were in front 14-11 after one quarter of play. The teams were tied at 16-all with 6:47 left, but Maher’s second trey broke it followed by a basket by Anna Forsyth. A transition bucket by Rachel Rhoads opened a Newton lead of 23-18.

The Fillies got a free throw from Mallory Vroegh and a basket by Cunningham to close the gap by the break. Newton was up 23-21 at halftime.

After DCG went up 25-23, Newton had a basket by Walters, a 3-pointer by Marcelina Marvelli and another field goal by Walters to regain the lead, 30-26. The Fillies went on an 11-2 run including a buzzer-beating 3-pointer by Vroegh to lead 37-32 at the end of the third quarter.

Borchers took over the game for DCG in the fourth quarter, hitting three straight treys. She scored 14 consecutive points to salt away the win for the Fillies.

“We lost her on a few plays. We got flustered because we were turning the ball over and didn’t play defense,” Sharp said. “If she has to work and scores 23 points, so bit it, but we gave up a couple of wide-open 3-pointers to her. We can’t do that.”

Walters finished with 11 points and six rebounds for Newton. She also had three assists and three steals. Forsyth scored eight points and grabbed seven rebounds.

Newton had a 33-20 rebounding advantage of the fillies. Bestell grabbed seven rebounds for Newton. Marvelli handed out four assists and made three steals.

To go with Borchers’ 23 points, the Fillies got 10 points from Vroegh. The Fillies went 9-of-15 from the free-throw line.

“Our whole mission is to protect our home floor and steal wins on the road. We’re winless against DCG, and I’ve told our girls the win is coming against them.” Sharp said. “Our girls came out and competed hard tonight. We have some things we need to tighten up — things we can control.”

Newton lost 53-47 in the junior varsity game. Meg Callaghan had 18 points and Kameron Nehring scored 17 points for the Cardinals.

The Cardinal freshman team lost 43-26 to DCG. Jenna McGuire had 15 points and four rebounds for Newton.

It doesn’t get any easier for the Cardinals after a week off from competition. On Friday, the Cardinals are on the road for a 6:15 p.m. tipoff in Little Hawkeye Conference play against Class 4A No. 3 Grinnell. Grinnell was 5-0 overall and 2-0 in conference play going into this week.

“Now, we turn our focus to Grinnell,” Sharp said. “Grinnell is playing very well right now. Our work is cut out for us, but our kids like competing against Grinnell. It’s a good rivalry game and we’ll be ready to go.”

The Cardinal varsity fell to 2-4 overall and 0-2 in Little Hawkeye Conference play. They travel to Grinnell next Friday in conference action.

DCG 11-10-16-15—52

Newton 14-9-9-5—37

Newton (FG/3-pt): Forsyth 4-0-4-8, Walters 4/1-0-1-11, Marvelli 0/1-0-2-3, Rhoads 1-0-1-2, Maher 0/2-0-3-6, Bestell 2-0-0-4, Blom 1-1-4-3. TOTALS: 12/4-1-15-37.

DCG (FG/3-pt): Borchers 3/4-5-1-23, Elfvin 0-2-1-2, Vroegh 3/1-1-1-10, Nolte 0-0-3-0, Hall 0-0-1-0, Denger 0-0-1-0, Reis 1/2-0-0-8, Cunningham 4-1-3-9. TOTALS: 11/7-9-11-52.

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