Baxter girls rally past North Tama

BAXTER — Holly Jessen was unhappy with her performance from the free-throw line in the first half of Monday’s Iowa Star Conference South Division battle with North Tama.

So the Baxter junior took a few extra shots from the charity stripe in the few minutes she had before the second half began.

The extra work paid off as Jessen sunk all four of her attempts in overtime to help the Bolts rally past North Tama at home.

Jessen was 6-of-9 from the line in the game, and she scored nine of her 12 points in the second half and overtime during the 58-52 victory.

“I wasn’t feeling too good about things in the first half,” Jessen said. “I think that got me going a little bit and gave me some extra confidence. I felt a lot better at the end.”

Three Bolts scored in double-figures in the game. Senior Kaylin Van Ryswyk led the way with 18 points, seven rebounds and three steals, and sophomore McKenzie Eslinger added 15 points, four rebounds and four assists.

Baxter lost its first six games of the season but has since gone 5-4 and has won three of its past five games. Buying into the inside-out game on the offensive end of the floor is one of the reasons for the turnaround, according to Baxter coach Eric Padget.

“We are not settling for as many 3-pointers,” Padget said. “The ball is moving, we are going inside-out and we are seeing some success with it.”

The Bolts (5-10 overall, 3-5 in conference play) led 10-5 early against the Redhawks and led 14-11 after one quarter. North Tama though responded with a 16-5 second quarter and led 27-19 at halftime.

Padget said his team didn’t come ready to play and lacked the necessary focus it takes to win games at the varsity level. The Bolts also were only 3-of-12 from the free-throw line in the first two quarters.

“It’s just a focus thing. We were not focused in the first half,” Padget said. “Credit to their team. They came ready to play. We took care of them the first time around. It’s hard to think a team with four wins would overlook anybody, but we just weren’t ready to play.

“They woke us up halftime, and we had to work for this one.”

The Bolts fell behind by 11 early in the second half after Takoa Kopriva buried a 3-pointer and scored another two on a drive to the bucket.

Van Ryswyk and Eslinger each scored six points in the second frame, and the Bolts got within five on a jumper by Van Ryswyk. North Tama (2-14, 0-10) went back up 10 after five straight points by Carlie Gorder.

The Bolts outscored the Redhawks 8-2 the rest of the period and trailed by five after three quarters. Eslinger got a putback and scored another two inside, and freshman Lilie Vansice hit a free throw with 16.6 seconds left in the quarter to make it 39-35.

“Kaylin and I work well together,” Eslinger said. “I think we have that attitude that we aren’t going to make the shots we don’t take so just put it up and hopefully we make more than we miss.”

The inside duo made more than they missed on Monday. They combined to hit 13-of-23 from the floor, and Eslinger was 6-of-9.

“We know where our bread is buttered. We always want to get it inside,” Padget said.

“I want the guards to go inside first and then be ready to shoot it if it comes back out to them.”

The Bolts didn’t take long to tie the score in the fourth. Junior Sadie Meyer hit a free throw and Jessen canned her second trey of the game to even the score at 39-all.

Then Baxter went up by a pair after Meyer scored in the lane. The game went back and forth from there. There were four ties and neither team led by more than two the rest of regulation.

Jessen sunk a pair of free throws to put Baxter up 48-47 with 1:19 on the clock. Molly Kvidera drained a 3-pointer to put the Redhawks back on top, but Gorder missed the front end of a one-and-one with 28.5 seconds to play to keep the lead at two.

Van Ryswyk got loose inside the lane with 12.2 seconds left, and the bucket tied the score at 50-all.

“We didn’t have enough energy in the first half. We needed to hype ourselves up at halftime and get things turned around,” Eslinger said. “We were able to do that eventually,”

Each team turned the ball over on their final possessions and the game went to overtime.

Van Ryswyk put her team back in front on the first possession of the extra session, but Abby DeBoef answered with layup to tie it back up.

That’s when Jessen took over from the line. She hit her first two with 1:55 to go to give the Bolts the lead for good. Her final points came with 42.3 seconds to play, and junior Caitlyn Bruntz and Eslinger each went 1-of-2 from the line to finish off the season sweep of the Redhawks.

While the Bolts were 18-of-42 from the line in the game, they made six of their 10 attempts in overtime.

“We got the right people to the line in overtime,” Padget said.

Padget made a defensive adjustment at halftime after Katie Kopriva scored 10 of her team-high 14 points. He changed to a box and one and that helped his team focus on the little things.

“When we had to focus on one player because she killed us in the first half, I think that helped us focus on the other stuff, too,” Padget said.

North Tama sophomore Rylee McLean scored 12 points and grabbed 16 rebounds off the bench.

Bruntz had four points, five rebounds and four steals for the Bolts, while Jessen grabbed seven boards and had three steals. Sophomore Sophie Meyer pulled down five boards and collected four steals, and Sadie Meyer scored five points and swiped three steals.

The Bolts had 14 assists on their 19 made shots and finished with 18 steals.

Baxter plays Don Bosco at 6 p.m. on Tuesday in Gilbertville.

Gilbert 76, Baxter 33

GILBERT — Sophie Meyer finished with seven points, three rebounds and three assists, but Gilbert dominated three of the four quarters during a 76-33 win on Thursday night.

The Tigers outscored Baxter 14-5 in the first quarter, 27-8 in the second and 20-5 in the fourth. Both teams scored 15 points in the third.

Jessen scored a team-high eight points, Van Ryswyk grabbed a team-high four boards and dished out three assists and Eslinger chipped in six points and grabbed three rebounds.

Bruntz finished with three steals. Sadie Meyer tallied three rebounds.

North Tama 11-16-12-11-2 — 52

Baxter 14-5-16-15-8 — 58

North Tama (FG/3pt-FT-F-TP): Carlie Gorder 4/2-0-3-10, Takoa Kopriva 3/1-0-5-7, Katie Kopriva 5/2-2-5-14, Hope Brubaker 1-0-2-2, Madeline Espenscheid 0-0-4-0, Carissa Calderwood 0-0-1-0, Molly Kvidera 1/1-0-1-3, Rylee McLean 4-4-2-12, Abby DeBoef 2-0-5-4. Totals 20/6-6-28-52.

Baxter (FG/3pt-FT-F-TP): Brenna Thomson 0-0-1-0, McKenzie Eslinger 6-3-4-15, Holly Jessen 2/2-6-3-12, Sophie Meyer 0-1-0-1, Kaylin Van Ryswyk 7-4-1-18, Cailtyn Bruntz 1-2-3-4, Lilie Vansice 1-1-4-2, Cassy Berg 0-0-0-0, Sydney Schmidt 0-0-0-0, Sadie Meyer 2-1-0-5. Totals 21/2-18-16-58.