March 29, 2024

Baxter girls break through, score program’s first win

BAXTER — The Baxter girls’ basketball team was in control most of the way during its Iowa Star Conference game against North Tama on Tuesday.

Getting that first win in program history hasn’t been easy. And after North Tama closed to within four after a big third quarter, it would have been easy for the Bolts to fold up their tent and go home.

Baxter decided to go the other way though, scoring the first nine points of the fourth and stayed in front the rest of the way during a 45-39 home victory.

The Bolts are winless no more.

“It feels great. I am so happy for these girls,” Baxter girls coach Eric Padget said. “They have been putting in a lot of time in practice working on the little things, and they got rewarded tonight. It’s really nice to see their hard work paid off.”

Senior Sailor Hinegardner, the Bolts’ only returning starter from last year, led the way against the Redhawks. Hinegardner finished with a team-high 14 points and eight steals.

Hinegardner missed the final 3:38 of the second quarter because of foul issues but bounced back with some big steals at the defensive end and some bigger free throws in the closing minutes of the fourth quarter.

“We have a lot of inexperienced players on this team so to get this first one was big and it feels awesome,” Hinegardner said. “It felt like everything is finally coming together.”

Baxter (1-5 overall, 1-3 in conference play) led 12-4 after one quarter. Hinegardner put in six of her 14 points in the frame, and the Bolts ended the quarter with back-to-back buckets inside by junior Kaylin Van Ryswyk and freshman McKenzie Eslinger.

It was a good night inside the lane for the Bolts, who controlled the boards with Van Ryswyk, Eslinger and senior Jordynn Wesselink. Van Ryswyk scored six points and grabbed 10 boards, Wesselink put in 11 points and pulled down seven rebounds and Eslinger chipped in four points and eight boards.

“Rebounding is all effort and desire. I was happy with the effort tonight, and that showed with the rebounding,” Padget said.

The Bolts extended their lead to 13 at halftime. Sophomore Sadie Meyer banked in a 3-pointer just before Hinegardner was whistled for her third foul. The Bolts went up 23-7 on that long ball, and Baxter held a 26-13 at halftime.

Baxter was able to turn the Redhawks over with an effective full-court press. That led to the Bolts recording 29 steals on the night.

“I wanted to speed up the game a little bit, and I thought we could run against them,” Padget said. “I didn’t want to get into a half-court game with them.”

The Redhawks (0-5, 0-3) rallied in the third quarter. North Tama trailed by 14 after a steal and layup by Hinegardner, but then rolled off a 12-2 run to close within four with one quarter to go.

North Tama outscored Baxter 14-5 in the third.

Baxter regained momentum with a 9-0 run in the first 1:13 of the fourth. Hinegardner got two quick steals during that span, and that led to points at the other end.

Sophomore Holly Jessen began the period with a 3-pointer, Wesselink scored on back-to-back putbacks and Hinegardner forced North Tama into a timeout with a steal and layup.

“We are just trying to win. We are willing to do whatever it takes, and we got some players to step up during that stretch,” Hinegardner said.

Even without a win to show for it, prior to Tuesday night, the Bolts haven’t quit in any game this season. That showed up again against North Tama. This time, Baxter was able to walk away with a victory.

“This team hasn’t shown any signs of quitting whatsoever,” Padget. “When we needed that ‘never say die attitude’ it showed up for us in the fourth quarter.”

The 9-0 run put the Bolts up 13, but North Tama didn’t go away. The Redhawks got within single digits after a 3-point play by Takoa Kopriva and then a 3-pointer by Olivia Schrier closed the gap to six with 1:36 to play.

Baxter hit enough free throws down the stretch to stay in front. But Padget knows more free throws need to fall moving forward. The Bolts were 3-for-10 from the free-throw line in the final minute but still won by six.

Baxter won the game despite making only 18-of-76 from the floor, 2-of-17 from 3-point range and 7-of-28 from the foul line.

“We missed a lot of free throws and a lot of layups,” Padget said. “It’s confidence. The veterans usually make those. Everyone else is still trying to get some confidence. They need to go up strong and finish those though.”

The Bolts grabbed 45 rebounds in the game, 22 coming on the offensive end. Jessen tallied eight rebounds from her guard position and junior Sydney Schmidt grabbed five.

Wesselink also had six steals, sophomore Caitlyn Bruntz tallied four steals and Schmidt and Jessen each finished with three steals.

North Tama 4-9-14-12 — 39

Baxter 12-14-5-14 — 45

North Tama (FG/3pt-FT-F-TP) — Shelby McKinley 0-1-4-1, Hope Brubaker 0-0-4-0, Olivia Schrier 2/1-2-4-7, Takoa Kopriva 6/2-7-3-21, Katelyn Kucera 0-1-1-1, Abby Deboef 1/1-0-0-3, Madeline Espenscheid 3-1-4-7, Carissa Calderwood 0-0-1-0, Rylee McLean 0-0-2-0. Totals 12/4-12-23-39.

Baxter (FG/3-pt-FT-F-TP) — Sailor Hinegardner 6-2-4-14, Holly Jessen 1/1-0-1-3, Jordynn Wesselink 5-1-2-11, Sydney Schmidt 0-0-4-0, Sadie Meyer 2/1-0-1-5, Brenna Thomson 0-0-1-0, McKenzie Eslinger 2-0-3-4, Kaitlynn Kelly 0-0-0-0, Sophie Meyer 0-2-2-2, Caitlyn Bruntz 0-0-2-0, Kaylin Van Ryswyk 2-2-3-6. Totals 18/2-7-23-45.